The NFL’s commitment to international expansion is paying off with increased TV/digital viewership in the United States.
The NFL Network’s telecast of the Kansas City Chiefs’ 21-14 win over the Dolphins from Frankfurt, Germany, averaged 9.6 million American viewers across TV and digital.
That was up 66% from the comparable 5.8 million for Seattle Seahawks vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Munich last year. It doesn’t include over-the-air viewership from the local Kansas City and Miami TV markets.
It ranks as NFLN’s most-watched international game telecast on record. It’s the league’s second-most watched morning game since the average 9.86 million viewers for Dolphins vs. New York Jets from London back in 2015.
Heading into Sunday, this season’s third international series matchup looked extremely promising.
The defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs vs. the high-scoring Dolphins was arguably one of the three best games of the NFL’s Week 9, along with the Philadelphia Eagles vs. Dallas Cowboys and Cincinnati Bengals vs. Buffalo Bills.
On the other hand, coverage kicked off at 9:30 a.m. ET and 6:30 a.m. PT due to the European time zone. The league’s own NFLN telecasted it, and NFLN is distributed in far fewer homes than the league’s other TV partners: ESPN, CBS Sports, Fox Sports, or NBC Sports.
Still, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and the Chiefs are the face of the NFL. The NFL’s commitment to international games – with a possible London Super Bowl in the future– is paying off with increased linear and digital viewership.
This year’s three international games are averaging 6.5 million viewers on TV/digital season-to-date. That’s up 20% vs. last year’s three-game average of 5.4 million.
At the digital level, Chiefs vs. Dolphins’, rang up an average minute audience of 465,000 viewers across NFL+ and the league’s other digital platforms. That also made it the highest international game for digital AMA on record.
NFLN’s three international games are averaging a digital AMA 332,000, up 25% from last year.
This Sunday, NFLN will televise its last international series game of the 2023 season, with the New England Patriots taking on the Indianapolis Colts from Frankfurt (9:30 a.m. ET).
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