NFL has its most-watched playoffs ever, with average of 38.5 million viewers per game
The NFL is heading into Super Bowl LVIII having had its most-watched playoffs ever.
The league announced today that this year's 12 playoff games averaged 38.5 million viewers, making this the most-watched playoffs the NFL has ever had.
That happened despite some changes to this year's playoffs, including the first-ever playoff game to air exclusively on a streaming platform when the Dolphins faced the Chiefs on Peacock, and a game that had to be delayed by a day when Steelers-Bills moved from Sunday to Monday because of a snowstorm.
Overall viewership for this year's 12 playoff games increased by 9 percent over last year, and each round of the playoffs saw its ratings increase from a year ago: The wild card round averaged 31.2 million viewers (an 8 percent increase from last year), the divisional round averaged 40.0 million (a 7 percent increase) and the conference championship games averaged 56.1 million (an 11 percent increase).
The playoff games averaged a 53.3 share, meaning of all Americans who were watching TV while an NFL playoff game was on, 53.3 percent of them were watching the game.
Last year's Super Bowl totaled 115.1 million viewers, a record that the league will hope Super Bowl LVIII can top.
