Chiefs-Ravens Secures Best AFC Championship Audience Ever; 49ers NFC Title Ekes Out Higher Viewership

The Kansas City Chiefs are headed to another Super Bowl against the San Francisco 49ers. Deja vu, anyone?

The Chiefs win over the Baltimore Ravens scored nearly 56M viewers on CBS, making it the most-watched AFC Championship game ever and breaking a record held by a Jets-Steelers matchup for more than a decade.

The game was up 17% from the early championship window last year, which was actually the NFC Championship’s 49ers-Eagles. The game peaked with 64M viewers.

Speaking of the NFC Championship, Fox’s late window for the matchup eked out a win this week in total viewers, tallying nearly 57M for the 49ers victory over the Detroit Lions.

That’s the best audience for the NFC Championship since 2012 and up 19% over the game last year. It’s also up 7% versus last year’s AFC Championship, which aired in the same window. The game peaked with about 59M viewers.

This has been a particularly stellar season for the NFL, which saw its best regular season audience since 2015. Last week, the Chiefs defeated the Buffalo Bills in the most-watched NFL Divisional Playoff game ever with more than 50M viewers tuning in.

This sets the stage for a hefty turnout for Super Bowl LVIII. Last year’s Chiefs-Eagles matchup drew 115M viewers, making it the most-watched U.S. telecast of all time. It is expected this year’s game will do at least north of 100M.