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It’s safe to say that the NFL’s strategy of owning TV on Thanksgiving Weekend is working out nicely.
Amazon Prime Video said its exclusive Black Friday stream of the Raiders-Chiefs game averaged 13.51 million viewers, up 41% from last year’s inaugural Jets-Dolphins Black Friday game.
Prime’s stream of the Chiefs’ 19-17 win peaked at a broadcast television-esque 17.43 million viewers between 6 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. ET, according to Nielsen. That was up 56% from the peak audience for last year’s game.
Prime’s viewership among the coveted 18-to-34-year-old demographic grew 43% to 2.53 million viewers from last season’s comparable 1.77 million. Nielsen is expected to release additional viewership numbers for Prime’s second Black Friday game this Thursday.
The NFL and Prime’s strong Black Friday numbers add to the league’s record TV viewership on Thanksgiving Day.
Despite relatively weak matchups, the NFL’s three Turkey Day games averaged 34.2 million viewers—the highest since the league started tracking in 1988.
CBS Sports’ broadcast of the early Lions-Bears game drew 37.5 million viewers, up 11% from last year’s comparable game. The Lions’ dramatic 23-20 win pulled the biggest audience on record for a game in the early Thanksgiving Day TV window.
Fox Sports’ Cowboys-Giants game, in the coveted Thanksgiving late afternoon window, drew a monster 38.8 million viewers—making it the fifth-most-watched NFL game since 1988.
While the 27–20 Dallas win was the most-watched game of the regular season so far, it trailed the three previous Thanksgiving Day broadcasts featuring America’s Team. All of those games topped 40 million viewers.
