Chiefs vs. Bengals Week 2 Matchup Drew Insane Numbers on CBS Broadcast

As has always been the case in their rivalry, the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals sure know how to draw in a large audience.

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) hug at midfield after the fourth quarter of the NFL Week 2 game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. The Chiefs took a 26-25 win with a go-ahead field goal as time expired. / Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

When the Kansas City Chiefs take the field, there's bound to be a huge audience watching either in-person or on television and streaming platforms. For the second week in a row to open the 2024-25 NFL season, that's certainly been the case.

In Week 1, it was the back-to-back champs' victory over the Baltimore Ravens that set a record as the most-watched NFL Kickoff game ever. Week 2's contest against another AFC North squad, the Cincinnati Bengals, also recorded plenty of viewers.

CBS announced that Sunday's Chiefs-Bengals game drew in a whopping 27.8 million average viewers. That figure is good for the most-watched September game of this century and the most-watched one of that month since 1998. The 27.8 million mark was up 8% over Week 2 of the 2023-24 campaign. "NFL on CBS" is off to its best start to an NFL season dating back to that same 1998-99 season, climbing 5% on an average viewership basis over last year.

The eye-popping numbers don't stop there, though. CBS' announcement also notes that the Sunday national contest (Kansas City versus Cincinnati) was the most-watched telecast on one network since the Chiefs' Super Bowl LVIII win over the San Francisco 49ers in February.

Additionally, this game was the most-streamed regular-season outing in the history of Paramount+ and helped contribute to the most-watched day of regular-season football ever on the platform.

Some were caught off guard when the NFL stacked its noon CT kickoff slate with 10 games. Half of those were on CBS, helping set the tone for an action-packed day of football. It also cleared the way for Chiefs-Bengals to put an exclamation point on Sunday, which is exactly what happened.

Harrison Butker's last-second field goal lifted Kansas City to another win over its most consistent AFC rival, and post-broadcast data shows that a significant chunk of the football world was watching when it happened.

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