Ravens vs. Steelers Playoff Game Sets Amazon Prime Record
Saturday's playoff game between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers marked a first for the NFL.
After three years of Amazon Prime Video being the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football, the NFL finally gave the streaming giant its first taste of the postseason, and with one of the league's greatest rivalries at that. Now a few days later, the ratings are in, and they didn't disappoint.
According to Prime Video Sports PR, Saturday's game peaked at 24.66 million viewers between 9-9:15 p.m. ET, the largest-ever concurrent audience for the service. The game attracted an average audience of 22.07 million viewers, 28 percent higher than the previous high for NFL on Prime (17.29 million for the Green Bay Packers vs. Detroit Lions game on Dec. 5).
It was a strong first foray into the playoffs for Amazon Prime, but compared to other streaming-exclusive games, there is ccertainly room for improvement.
Netflix's two Christmas Day games, which featured the Ravens travelling to face the Houston Texans and the Steelers hosting the Kansas City Chiefs, both had average audiences of over 24 million. Peacock's exclusive Wild Card Round game between the Chiefs and Miami Dolphins last year had an average audience of 22.86 million.
Considering that Prime has far more subscribers than Peacock, Saturday's viewership falling short of last year's is a bit disappointing. Granted, the Ravens turning the game into a blowout early on probably didn't help, but that Chiefs-Dolphins game wasn't exactly a thriller.
This weekend, the Ravens face the Buffalo Bills in the most-anticipated matchup of the Divisional Round, which should bring in outstanding viewership numbers as well.