Chiefs-Dolphins game in Germany draws near-record rating for NFL Network
A full house of 50,023 fans inside Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt, Germany, watched the Kansas City Chiefs top the Miami Dolphins 21-14 during Week 9 NFL action Sunday. Many, many, many more tuned in back in the United States on television.
According to Sports Media Watch, the NFL's second-ever International Series game in Germany drew a 4.8 average rating and 9.18 million total viewers for the NFL Network broadcast Sunday morning, which began at 9:30 a.m. ET. It is the most-watched morning game since the Dolphins and New York Jets drew 9.86 million viewers for their 2015 London game, and it is the most-watched morning game ever broadcast on NFL Network, topping the 5.5 million viewers who tuned into watch the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Munich last season.
More from SMW:
The Chiefs’ win delivered the second-largest NFL audience on cable this season, trailing the ESPN and ESPN2 portion of Bills-Jets in Week 1 (10.96M). Keep in mind that only two 'Monday Night Football' games have aired exclusively on the ESPN networks thus far — and both overlapped with a competing matchup on ABC.
As you can imagine, the game drew a massive audience in Kansas City alone, as Sports Business Journal's John Ourand noted:
Yesterday morning’s Chiefs game posted an incredible 94 share in Kansas City.
That means that 94% of the TVs in use were tuned to the Chiefs-Dolphins game.— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) November 6, 2023
The game's total rating ranked behind the Week 1 Buffalo Bills-New York Jets matchup on "Monday Night Football" and the Colorado State-Colorado matchup Sept. 16 as the most-watched cable sporting events since Game 7 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat in May.
The last game on the NFL's 2023 International Series schedule will take place Sunday morning when the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots meet in Frankfurt.
