LOS ANGELES — The Chicago Bears’ comeback win Saturday against the visiting Green Bay Packers in an NFL wild-card playoff game became the first matchup in league history to have more than 30 million viewers on a streaming service.
The Bears’ 31-27 victory over their NFC North Division rivals in prime time at Soldier Field averaged 31.61 million on Amazon Prime Video, according to Nielsen, and broke the previous standard by 4 million. That mark was set on Christmas in an another pairing of NFC North teams, when the Minnesota Vikings’ win over the Detroit Lions averaged 27.52 million on Netflix.
Chicago trailed 27-16 with just less than seven minutes left in the fourth quarter before Caleb Williams threw a pair of touchdown passes to lead the Bears to their first playoff win since the 2010 season.
It was the second year Prime Video has shown a playoff game. Last year’s wild-card game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are AFC North rivals, averaged 22.07 million.
It was the third season the NFL has streamed the Saturday night wild-card game. The AFC wild-card game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins during the 2023 season averaged 23 million on Peacock.
Four of the five games on Saturday and Sunday delivered increases from last year.
Some of the increase can be attributed to a change in the way viewers are counted. Nielsen began using its Big Data + Panel methodology for all events last September with the start of the current television season.
Earlier this season, Nielsen began measuring out-of-home viewers for all states but Alaska and Hawaii, along with including data from smart TVs along with cable and satellite set-top boxes.
Nielsen previously measured only the top 44 media markets, which covered 65% of the country.
The most-watched game of the weekend was the Sunday late-afternoon game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers, which averaged 41 million on Fox. That’s a 14% increase over last year’s game between the Eagles and the Packers in that time slot.
The 49ers’ 23-19 victory against last season’s Super Bowl champions was the most-watched wild-card game on any network since the 2021 season, when the 49ers’ matchup with the Dallas Cowboys averaged 41.5 million on CBS.
Sunday’s game between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars averaged 32.71 million on CBS, making the Bills’ 27-24 win the most-watched early Sunday AFC wild-card game on any network. It was also a 5% jump over last year’s contest between the Bills and the Denver Broncos.
Fox also had Saturday afternoon’s game between the Carolina Panthers and the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams’ 34-31 win averaged 27.98 million, up 7% from last year’s matchup between the Houston Texans and the Los Angeles Chargers on CBS.
It was the most-watched Saturday afternoon wild-card game since NBC averaged 28.30 million for the New Orleans Saints facing the Seattle Seahawks in 2011.
The New England Patriots’ 16-3 victory over the Chargers on NBC averaged 28.9 million Sunday night, down slightly from the 29 million for last year’s game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Washington Commanders in the same time slot.
It was the most-watched prime-time event since last February’s Super Bowl on Fox, when the Eagles routed Kansas City to end the Chiefs’ bid for an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl victory.