Amazon Gets Back-to-Back ‘Thursday Night Football’ Ratings Wins

Amazon has opened the NFL season with its two highest audiences for Thursday Night Football since Prime Video started streaming NFL games in 2017.

Thursday’s Week 3 matchup between the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers averaged a 6.5 rating and 13.92 million viewers on Amazon Prime Video, making it the second-most watched NFL game ever on Prime Video, per SportsMedia Watch. It trails only the prior week’s Minnesota Vikings-Philadelphia Eagles game on TNF, which drew 15.05 million viewers as the most-streamed game in NFL history.

Thursday Night Football is now averaging 14.48 million viewers through two games, a 21% increase over last year’s first two games (11.95M), and 71% more than the viewership for 2021’s first two TNF games shown exclusively on NFL Network (8.45M).

Amazon is also bringing the NFL closer to its coveted younger demographic, as the median age for TNF viewers through two weeks is 47—seven years younger than other NFL broadcasters. For Giants-49ers, Prime Video’s audience was comprised of 49% of adults aged 18-49, while 18-34s accounted for more than a fifth (22%), compared to 37 and 15 percent respectively, for the other NFL broadcasters.

Nielsen has opted against including Amazon’s internal first-party data in its viewership measurements. The tech giant is in its second year streaming TNF exclusively on Prime Video as part of its 11-year, $11 billion deal signed with the NFL.