• by Wayne Friedman , January 23, 2024

Two out of four divisional NFL playoff games notched record-setting ratings results in Nielsen-measured viewers.

The highly touted, fiercely competitive game featuring the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills on CBS posted a massive 50.4 million viewers on Sunday -- the largest NFL audience ever outside the Super Bowl and conference championship. 

It was the first divisional game ever to top 50 million -- and 10% higher than the same late Sunday afternoon divisional playoff game of a year ago.

The Saturday afternoon game was another close contest featuring two venerable NFL franchises -- the San Francisco 49ers vs. the Green Bay Packers -- earning 37.5 million viewers, up 31% versus the same game a year ago.

Two other earlier games on both days posted basically flat results. The game featuring the Detroit Lions vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers posted 37.12 million viewers on NBC -- down 5% from the same game a year ago. The Baltimore Ravens vs. the Houston Texans on ABC-ESPN reached 32.4 million viewers, up 0.3% versus a year ago.

Divisional game data does not include NFL playoff viewership on Walt Disney's ESPN+ and NBCU's Peacock.

In terms of advertising, CBS took in $82.3 million for the Kansas City-Buffalo contest in estimated national TV ad spend, according to EDO Ad EnGage.

Fox came in at $60 million for the Green Bay-San Francisco game. NBC's Tampa Bay-Detroit game pulled in $49.7 million, followed by ABC/ESPN's Baltimore-Houston game with $43.7 million.

Total national TV NFL game ad spending for the weekend came in at $235.7 million.