Another thrilling game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills delivered a record-setting audience for CBS. Sunday’s AFC Championship game averaged 57.4 million viewers on CBS, beating out last year’s record audience of 55.5 million for Chiefs-Ravens, per Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal.
The audience was helped by a dramatic game that went all the way down to the wire in the fourth quarter. It also featured some controversy as well, when Josh Allen was denied a first down on a quarterback sneak attempt in the fourth quarter. Even though there’s been a lot of outrage over the Chiefs getting supposed breaks from NFL officiating, all of the talk about it isn’t hurting the audience totals.
Viewership for the game was up 3% year-over-year, and is one of the only games so far this postseason to post an increase.
The Chiefs’ narrow win was also the most-watched conference championship game in over a decade. The 2012 NFC Championship between the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers averaged 57.6 million viewers, though that game was measured prior to Nielsen’s inclusion of out-of-home viewing figures.
As goes without saying, Sunday’s game is also the most-watched iteration of the Chiefs-Bills rivalry. Last year’s Divisional Round matchup between the two teams averaged 50.4 million viewers. Their last meeting in the AFC Championship game during the 2021 season averaged 42.3 million viewers.
The record-setting audience should quiet any criticism of “Chiefs fatigue” impacting NFL viewership. In a postseason where the league has struggled to tread water with last year’s strong audience figures, the two-time defending Super Bowl champs have again proven they’re appointment viewing.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.