Dolphins-Chiefs Wild Card Game on Peacock Breaks All-Time Streaming Record
Peacock's first-ever NFL playoff exclusive made internet history on Saturday.
Not to mix up our sports metaphors or anything — but it looks like if you stream it (and it’s NFL football), they definitely will come.
In a big win for both Peacock and the Kansas City Chiefs, Saturday’s January 13, 2024 Peacock-exclusive broadcast of the NFL Wild Card playoff game between the Chiefs and visiting rivals the Miami Dolphins set a new streaming record, drawing mind-boggling average viewership numbers as QB Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs advanced past the Dolphins by a decisive 26-7 final score.
In what play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico aptly characterized as “the fourth coldest game in NFL history,” the Chiefs’ big Wild Card win also made history of another kind: Not only did the streaming-only broadcast outpace last year’s comparable Wild Card broadcast viewership by an estimated 6 percent (via Variety); it also accounted for a historic chunk of traffic across the entire freakin’ internet during the game’s live stream on January 13.
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How Many People Streamed the Dolphins vs. Chiefs Wild Card Game on Peacock?
More than 23 million people tuned in to Peacock to watch the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Miami Dolphins. The game was not only the largest live streamed event in U.S. history, but also the nation’s biggest night on the Internet ever, according to Comcast.
Those numbers don’t lie: Peacock’s prime time broadcast set a single-day record for internet activity according to Variety, representing roughly 30 percent of all internet traffic while the game was being streamed Saturday night. The game marked the first time ever that an NFL playoff matchup was made available only via a streaming platform, with the Chiefs advancing to the AFC divisional playoff round — where their eventual opponent (not to mention home field advantage) was set to be determined by the January 15 winner of this year’s last remaining Wild Card game between the Buffalo Bills and visiting Pittsburgh Steelers.
RELATED: Everything Streaming on Peacock in January 2024
Peacock’s big playoff draw also created a huge ripple effect across the bird app, leading tons of viewers laughing their way into Ted, the just-debuted Peacock original comedy series based on creator Seth MacFarlane’s 2012 movie starring the series’ titular trash-talking teddy bear.
“This kind of remarkable innovation is in our DNA,” said Roberts. “NBC was the first to broadcast a live football game in the 1930s and Comcast engineers helped develop the standards and build the technology that is the modern Internet. The incredible achievement over the weekend is a continuation of that legacy.”
As the NFL looks toward the divisional round of the playoffs this weekend, Peacock will again be in the thick of NBC’s football coverage. Watch the Detroit Lions host the winner of the January 15 Wild Card game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers to determine one-half of this season’s NFC conference championship picture on both NBC and in simulcast on Peacock, with coverage beginning at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, January 21.
