NFL ratings Week 3: Strong Sunday Night game holds interest; another Prime blowout doesn’t draw viewers

Through three weeks of the NFL season, it’s clear that star teams draw viewers — but good games might draw even more. And while old-school fans accustomed to the NFL on broadcast TV might complain about the league’s increasing presence on streaming services, early returns indicate the league has its eye on a different (read: younger) audience.

The Chiefs’ last-minute hold against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday night drew a “Total Audience Delivery” — TV and digital — of 24.8 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, according to NBC Sports. The game is Sunday Night Football’s most-watched Week 3 game ever, according to NBC, and marked a 20 percent increase over last year’s comparable Steelers-Raiders game. The game was also the fourth-most-streamed ever. (Caveats apply: There haven’t been that many streamed games overall, and ratings only began taking into account out-of-home viewing in the last few years.)

Earlier in the week, Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football had the misfortune of airing the Jets’ destruction of the hapless New England Patriots, and the numbers reflected the (relative) lack of interest. Jets-Pats averaged 13.37 million viewers, down 4 percent from last year’s comparable Giants-49ers game.

It’s the second straight blowout game for Prime, after Week 2’s lackluster Bills-Dolphins game. But, as Sports Media Watch notes, the Prime games are drawing in a younger audience — a median age of 47.3 years old, as opposed to 54.5 for regular NFL broadcasts.

“There has been some debate as to whether Amazon is attracting younger viewers in excess,” SMW politely points out, “or merely that older viewers are not as easily able to find the game on Prime.”

Further data is forthcoming from Week 3, including Fox, CBS and Monday night’s overlapping doubleheader.