Chiefs vs. Falcons Sets 'Sunday Night Football' Week 3 Viewership Record

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are drawing in a big crowd once again, this time with their performance against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.

Sep 22, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) reacts with Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud III (34) after the Chiefs defeated the Atlanta Falcons at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images / Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

For the third week in a row to kick off the 2024-25 NFL season, the Kansas City Chiefs are making headlines for how many folks tuned in to watch one of their games.

This time around, it's the back-to-back Super Bowl champs' Week 3 outing against the Atlanta Falcons that set a new record.

Per a release from NBC, the most recent Sunday Night Football game between Kansas City and Atlanta was the fourth-most simulstreamed NBC NFL regular-season contest ever. Between the NBC and Peacock platforms, it also ranks as the most-watched NBC Sunday Night Football game ever for Week 3.

"Patrick Mahomes threw two scoring passes and the defense stopped two fourth-quarter drives inside the 15-yard line for the 3-0 Chiefs, as the game averaged a preliminary Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 24.8 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, based on live plus same day custom fast nationals from Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics," the release read. "NBC Sports’ audience peaked at 27.5 million viewers just before halftime (9:30-9:45 p.m. ET)."

This marks a 20% increase over last year's Week 3 game featuring the Pittsburgh Steelers and Las Vegas Raiders. Per NBC, Sunday's Average Minute Audience for the game was 2.6 million viewers and the contest registered a TV household rating of 11.7/35 throughout the United States. Kansas City and St. Louis led the top metered markets, followed by Atlanta, Cincinnati and Denver.

To begin the season, the Chiefs' opener against the Baltimore Ravens reached new heights as the most-watched NFL Kickoff game ever. Week 2 saw their Cincinnati Bengals bout draw in a whopping 27.8 million average viewers on CBS, making it the most-watched September game this century on the network.

Can Sunday's game in Los Angeles versus the Chargers (on CBS) continue to set the bar high? Only time will tell.

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