Last Saturday’s Texans-Chiefs Game Becomes ESPN’s Most-Watched NFL Game Ever

by |
Tags: ,

Saturday’s NFL game, which saw the Texans go against the Chiefs, has delivered 32.7 million viewers, making it ESPN’s most-watched NFL game ever.

What’s Happening:

  • ESPN’s 2025 NFL Divisional Round presentation delivered a record-breaking audience across ESPN platforms, with the Houston Texans at the Kansas City Chiefs becoming the company’s most-watched NFL game of all-time.
  • The 32.7 million viewers who tuned in on Saturday, Jan. 18th at 4:30 PM ET surpassed each NFL on ESPN game, playoffs and regular season, since 1987 (38 seasons), the first year when ESPN aired NFL games.
  • ESPN’s Texans-Chiefs viewership is expected to surpass 33 million viewers when Nielsen reports the final audience this week. The current viewership of 32.7 million viewers includes the vast majority, but not all audiences from ESPN, ABC and ESPN+.
  • There were additional viewership highlights, including:
  • NFL’s Best Divisional Saturday Afternoon Viewership in 10 Seasons: ESPN’s Texans-Chiefs viewership is the NFL’s top audience for a Divisional Saturday afternoon (4:30 p.m. kickoff) in 10 seasons, beginning in January 2016 to present, across all networks.
  • ESPN Up Year-Over-Year: ESPN bested its own audience from the 2024 Divisional Round, which was also played on the same day and time slot, and earned a then-record audience of 32.3 million viewers.
  • ESPN Delivers Saturday’s Top Peak Audience Across All Networks: ESPN’s audience peaked at 38.5 million viewers (7-7:15 p.m.), the highest peak audience of any network on Saturday, Jan. 18.
  • Disney’s Most-Watched Non-Super Bowl NFL Game
    • The audience bested all 25 Disney NFL Playoff games in the previous 29 years, including 14 exclusively on ABC (1996-2005), ten available on ABC and ESPN (2016-24) and one solely on ESPN (2015).
    • The game also surpassed every regular season game exclusively on ABC since 1996.
  • ESPN rewriting its own record books has become a modern trend, as each season of the Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, and Lisa Salters era (2022-23, 23-24, and 24-25 seasons) has concluded with ESPN airing its most-watched game of all-time. In that same period, accounting for all games in regular season and postseason, ESPN has aired seven of its eight most-watched games.
  • ESPN’s record-breaking playoff viewership concludes the company’s 2024-25 season which delivered Monday Night Football’s second most-watched season in the ESPN era, joining the 2023 campaign as the two most-watched MNF seasons (2006 — present).
  • This season, Monday Night Football averaged 15 million viewers a game and reached 112 million fans along the way.

Laughing Place recommends MouseFanTravel.com for all your Disney travel planning
Fill out the form below for a free, no obligation quote from MouseFanTravel.com
Tony Betti
Originally from California where he studied a dying artform (hand-drawn animation), Tony has spent most of his adult life in the theme parks of Orlando. When he’s not writing for LP, he’s usually watching and studying something animated or arguing about “the good ole’ days” at the parks.
View all articles by Tony Betti