{"id":407763,"date":"2026-01-14T03:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T03:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/407763\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T03:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T03:11:08","slug":"bears-wild-card-win-over-packers-sets-nfl-streaming-viewership-record-with-31-61-million-average","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/407763\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears&#8217; wild-card win over Packers sets NFL streaming viewership record with 31.61 million average"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Chicago&#8217;s come-from-behind victory over Green Bay in Saturday&#8217;s wild-card round became the first NFL game to have over 30 million viewers on a streaming service.<\/p>\n<p>The Bears&#8217; 31-27 victory averaged 31.61 million on Amazon Prime Video, according to Nielsen, and broke the previous standard by 4 million. That mark was set on Christmas Day, when Minnesota&#8217;s win over Detroit averaged 27.52 million on Netflix.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Chicago trailed 27-16 with just under seven minutes left in the fourth quarter before Caleb Williams threw a pair of touchdown passes to lead <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/packers-bears-score-nfl-playoffs-7729bbfcab314e6eef5bf7b1bba4cdef\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:the Bears to their first playoff win;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">the Bears to their first playoff win<\/a> since the 2010 season.<\/p>\n<p>It was the second year that Prime Video has had a playoff game. Last year&#8217;s wild-card game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens averaged 22.07 million.<\/p>\n<p>It was the third season the NFL has streamed the Saturday night wild-card game. The AFC wild-card game between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs during the 2023 season averaged 23 million on Peacock.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Four of the five games on Saturday and Sunday delivered increases from last year.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the increase can be attributed to a change in the way viewers are counted. Nielsen began using its <a href=\"https:\/\/nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nielsen.com%2Fnews-center%2F2025%2F2025-the-media-rating-council-accredits-nielsens-innovative-big-data-panel-national-tv-measurement%2F%23%3A~%3Atext%3DNielsen%2520is%2520the%2520first%2520accredited%2Csaid%2520Karthik%2520Rao%252C%2520Nielsen%2520CEO.&amp;data=05%7C02%7CJReedy%40ap.org%7Cac055d3889084538cb2108dddf367c66%7Ce442e1abfd6b4ba3abf3b020eb50df37%7C1%7C0%7C638912147302469917%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=Q9UpatTN7WnANY3urUEYX%2FUUgqEtCXxdr2jcuhUvGgE%3D&amp;reserved=0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Big Data + Panel;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Big Data + Panel<\/a> methodology for all events last September with the start of the current television season.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, Nielsen began measuring out-of-home viewers for all states but Hawaii and Alaska, along with including data from smart TVs along with cable and satellite set-top boxes.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Nielsen previously measured only the top 44 media markets, which covered 65% of the country.<\/p>\n<p>The most-watched game of the weekend was the Sunday late-afternoon game between San Francisco and Philadelphia, which averaged 41 million on Fox. That&#8217;s a 14% increase over last year&#8217;s game between the Eagles and Green Bay in that timeslot.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/49ers-eagles-nfl-playoffs-score-2a7a5ecd0146dbd86fe2d2ed93f87268\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The 49ers&#039; 23-19 victory;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">The 49ers&#8217; 23-19 victory<\/a> was the most-watched wild-card game on any network since the 2021 season, when San Francisco against Dallas averaged 41.5 million on CBS.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Sunday&#8217;s game between Buffalo and Jacksonville averaged 32.71 million on CBS, making the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/bills-jaguars-score-19d49b4054f7b4394d677e8e778d7f2a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Bills&#039; 27-24 win;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Bills&#8217; 27-24 win<\/a> the most-watched early Sunday AFC wild-card game on any network. It was also a 5% jump over last year&#8217;s contest between the Bills and Denver.<\/p>\n<p>Fox also had Saturday afternoon&#8217;s game between the Los Angeles Rams and Carolina. The <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/rams-panthers-score-da0a75fa53f976093d0cd72f0d04426d\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Rams&#039; 34-31 win;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Rams&#8217; 34-31 win<\/a> averaged 27.98 million, up 7% from last year&#8217;s matchup between the Los Angeles Chargers and Houston on CBS.<\/p>\n<p>It was the most-watched Saturday afternoon wild-card game since NBC averaged 28.30 million for New Orleans against Seattle in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/chargers-patriots-score-playoffs-ded11bcd8d7519e34e99da1181c8b257\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:New England&#039;s 16-3 victory over the Chargers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">New England&#8217;s 16-3 victory over the Chargers<\/a> on NBC averaged 28.9 million, down slightly from the 29 million for last year&#8217;s Washington-Tampa Bay game.<\/p>\n<p>It was the most-watched prime-time event since last February&#8217;s Super Bowl on Fox.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP NFL: <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Chicago&#8217;s come-from-behind victory over Green Bay in Saturday&#8217;s wild-card round became the first NFL&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[13278,1742,1442,12595,49,1755,48,6681,7236,1990,8823,1043,1443,8494,1727,2210,1749,1720,2598,19260,2694,514,35915,1518,949,5886,7675,82,171722],"class_list":["post-407763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-49ers","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-bears","tag-bills","tag-ca","tag-caleb-williams","tag-canada","tag-chicago","tag-dallas","tag-denver","tag-detroit","tag-green-bay","tag-houston","tag-jacksonville","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-minnesota","tag-new-england","tag-new-orleans","tag-nfl","tag-nielsen","tag-philadelphia","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-san-francisco","tag-seattle","tag-sports","tag-wild-card-game"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}