Sunday night’s divisional round features one of the most highly anticipated quarterback duels in recent history.
Josh Allen and the Bills host Lamar Jackson and the Ravens in a face-off between this season’s top two MVP candidates. Both teams are also the AFC’s top contenders attempting to thwart the Chiefs from securing the first three-peat in the Super Bowl era. Sunday’s winner has a potential AFC championship date with Kansas City, which is heavily favored against the Texans on Saturday.
While Sunday’s game does not feature the Chiefs, Cowboys, or Lions—the NFL’s three biggest viewership draws this year—recent history shows playoff battles between two of the league’s best signal-callers bring in big viewership numbers.
Here are some examples since the beginning of this decade:
- Chiefs vs. Ravens, 2024 AFC championship: Last year’s game between Jackson and Patrick Mahomes—the previous two MVP winners—was the most-watched AFC title game with 55.5 million average viewers.
- Chiefs vs. Bills, 2024 AFC divisional: A week earlier, Mahomes defeated Allen in what was the most-watched divisional game of all time with more than 50 million viewers. There was intrigue built up from two other playoff meetings since 2021, including the controversial overtime finish in the 2022 divisional round, which drew 42.7 million viewers on CBS.
- Bengals vs. Chiefs, 2023 AFC championship: The showdown between Mahomes and Joe Burrow drew 53.1 million viewers, which was then the most-watched NFL championship game in five years. It was up 11% from the battle between the same two teams in the AFC championship the year before.
- Buccaneers vs. Packers, 2021 NFC championship: It’s hard to believe that just four years ago, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady played for a shot to make the Super Bowl. Their duel drew 44.8 million viewers on Fox, which at the time was the most-watched NFC title game in four years.
It’s important to note that Nielsen, which provides the ratings and viewership for these games, only started including nationwide out-of-home viewership in its tally in mid-2021, which may explain some of the inflated viewership figures.
There is one additional sobering caveat: Most of the top duels featured Mahomes and the Chiefs. The Bills and Ravens last faced off in the playoffs in the 2021 divisional round, which drew 27.1 million viewers, the least-watched divisional game since 2009, according to Sports Media Watch.
