Ratings Roundup: Bills-Chiefs Fuels Most Watched AFC Championship on Record; Wemby's Homecoming Creates Most-Watched NBA Game in France By SVG Staff Friday, January 31, 2025 - 11:00 am
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Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, another Bills vs. Chiefs matchup in the postseason becomes the most-watched AFC title game on record, NBA Paris delivers most-watched NBA game ever in France, and more.
Bills-Chiefs Named Most-Watched AFC Championship on Record According to SportsMediaWatch, Sunday's Bills-Chiefs AFC Championship Game averaged 57.7 million viewers on CBS, marking the largest audience on record for an AFC title game (dating back to 1988) and the most-watched conference championship overall since Vikings-Saints on FOX in 2010 (57.9M). Going back further, the only other conference title game with a larger recorded audience was Cowboys-49ers in 1982, which was said to have averaged 68.7 million in an era before Nielsen people meters.
The Chiefs' win, which peaked with more than 62 million viewers from 9:30 PM ET through the conclusion, increased 4% from last year's Chiefs-Ravens AFC title game, which aired in the early window (55.5M). Viewership also increased 2% from Lions-49ers on FOX in the same late window last year (56.3M).
Commanders-Eagles Hits Low for Down Year in the NFC According to SportsMediaWatch, Sunday's Commanders-Eagles NFC Championship Game averaged 44.2 million viewers across the Fox Sports family of networks, marking the least-watched NFL conference title game since Bills-Chiefs on CBS in 2021 (42.8M) and the least-watched NFC title game since Packers-49ers in 2020, the last year before Nielsen began including out-of-home data in its viewership estimates (42.5M on FOX, 43.9M across all Fox platforms).
The Eagles' easy win, which peaked with 50.4 million viewers in the 5:30 PM ET quarter-hour, declined more than 20% from both of last year's title games - Lions-49ers in the NFC, which aired in the late window (56.3M) and Chiefs-Ravens in the AFC, which aired in the early window on CBS (55.5M).
From FOX Sports perspective, this game was the most-watched telecast since last year's NFC title game.
NBA Paris Delivers Most-Watched NBA Game Ever in France The NBA Paris Game 2025, which featured the Indiana Pacers and the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday, Jan. 23, set several records across television viewership and digital and social media engagement. Highlights include:
The most-watched regular-season NBA game ever on television in France. NBA League Pass viewership was up 41% in France and 19% globally vs. last year's Paris Game.
The most-viewed NBA Global Game ever on the league's social media accounts (218M+ views) across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube.
Content featuring Victor Wembanyama in Paris this week has propelled him to become the second most-viewed NBA player across the league's social media accounts this season (817M+ views). This week alone, content featuring Wembanyama has generated more than 108M views, including a video of him juggling a ball on the Paris Saint-Germain pitch on Wednesday, Jan. 22 that has garnered more than 39M views on Instagram, making it the fifth most-viewed post on the NBA's Instagram account this season.
Madison Keys Delivers Three Year High for Aussie Open Women's Final, But Tourney Down Overall Saturday's Madison Keys-Aryna Sabalenka Australian Open women's final averaged 452,000 viewers on ESPN, up 34% from last year (Aryna Sabalenka-Qinwen Zheng: 388K) and the most-watched women's final of the tournament since 2022, the previous year it featured an American (Ashleigh Barty-Danielle Collins: 482K). The women's semifinals - Keys-Iga Swiatek and Sabalenka-Paula Badosa - averaged 357,000, up 13% from last year and the most-watched since 2021. (SMW)
However, the men's and women's coverage of the Australian Open overall was down 11% overall compared to last year, averaging 235,000 viewers on ESPN and ESPN2. The later rounds-from the quarterfinals to the championship-averaged 295,000 viewers, down 20% versus last year. (FOS)
Unrivaled Sees Expected Dip in Week 2 According to SportsMediaWatch, the new women's basketball league Unrivaled is averaging 194,000 viewers across TNT and truTV through two weeks, with that average rising to 238,000 when truTV-exclusive games are excluded.
Coverage on Monday night averaged 166,000 on TNT/truTV (Laces-Rose: 192K; Lunar Owls/Vinyl: 134K), down 10% from the prior Monday window - which had a lead-in from an NBA Martin Luther King Day doubleheader, but also faced tougher competition from the CFP National Championship and Inauguration Day (184K).
SportsCenter & Scott Van Pelt Score Big in January In January, the 2 p.m. ET edition of SportsCenter was the most-viewed month of all-time with an average of 443,000 viewers and up 22% year-over-year. As for the 11 p.m. ET edition, the show was the fourth most-viewed and had its best month since May 2023. This was achieved with an average of 994,000 viewers and up 126% year-over-year.
SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt had an average of 1.5 million viewers in the last month, which was the show's highest month on average since December 2017 and up 37% from last January. This ranks 7 out of 12 shows to average 1.6 million or more.
