'Meaningless' Lions-49ers Monday Night Football Game Delivers Monster Ratings

The game drew 22.2 million viewers, a season-high for ESPN.

Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff (16) makes a pass against San Francisco 49ers during the second half at Levi's Stadium. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Detroit Lions could have rested their starters on Monday night against the San Francisco 49ers with the knowledge that it's a Week 18 tilt with the Minnesota Vikings that will determine the NFC North and the conference's top seed. The San Francisco 49ers, already eliminated from playoff contention, could have also played out the string.

Instead both teams—unironically here—played hard in an extremely competitive shootout with stars making big plays all night. Throw in some honest-to-goodness intrigue about how Dan Campbell would negotiate his depth chart and, boom, ESPN sent out word on Tuesday that the "meaningless' game was a beast ratings-wise.

The network announced that the game, which was broadcast on both ESPN and ABC, drew 22.2 million viewers—the most-watched Monday Night Football offering of the year and one of the five-highest numbers since ESPN secured MNF rights in 2006.

In retrospect, it's really no surprise that such a unique situation with such a viewer-friendly team like the Lions did so well. It's also a data point to suggest that Detroit's matchup with the Vikings in a few days is poised to be a great boon to NBC's Sunday Night Football. One could make the argument that there has never been a more significant final game to a regular season and both teams play an attractive brand of offensive football.

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