NFL Playoffs Dominate Weekend TV Watch-Time

Although the NFL has started experimenting with having some games only available on streaming, the sport continues to absolutely crush it for linear TV, especially with the playoffs in full swing.

The divisional round of games this past weekend captured an astounding 33.62% of all minutes watched Jan. 20-21, an increase from the 2023 divisional round weekend games which had a 27.48% viewership share.

Supporting playoff coverage and NFL-specific programming accounted for another 4.7%, bringing NFL’s total to a whopping 38.3% share across everything that was on TV this weekend. Postseason NFL Countdown was the third most-watched programming (1.62% viewership share).

And while it’s not only focused on the NFL, SportsCenter had a big weekend as well, ranking fourth across all TV shows with 1.35% of watch-time, a notable increase from its 0.67% share the previous weekend.

The league’s dominance speaks to just how much of a draw the NFL Playoffs can be — especially with plenty of popular teams and big individual names still remaining in the field. While it’s tough to put a number on it, one would think the Kansas City Chiefs’ success and Taylor Swift’s attendance at games to support boyfriend Travis Kelce is also contributing somewhat to the strong tune-in relative to last year (when numbers were already pretty impressive as it is).