NFL Kicks Off 2024 Season With Huge Ratings Win

The Kansas City Chiefs may have won the kickoff game against the Baltimore Ravens on NBC and Peacock, but the NFL also came out on top as a winner with ratings.

Viewership for the NFL kickoff game on Thursday averaged 48.9 million, according to AdImpact.

The data found that the game reached a peak audience of 55.6 million viewers at 10:09 p.m. ET near the end of the first half, while YouTube and YouTube TV captured 16% of the audience. Other streaming platforms collectively held 34% of the viewership.

AdImpact found that last year’s NFL kickoff game between the Chiefs and Detroit Lions averaged 40.1 million viewers, so this year saw an 18% increase in average viewership. The research data showed that the peak estimated viewership for last year’s game was 45.3 million at 9:27 p.m. ET. With this year’s peak at 55.6 million, there was a 22.7% difference between this year’s and last year’s game.

The info comes from AdImpact’s dataset, which is collected through AdImpact’s Advanced TV panel of monitored smart TVs, totaling 23 million. This data includes viewing patterns and devices tracked using automated content recognition technology.

“These viewership numbers demonstrate the clear value of the NFL as a media property, especially for linear television,” Don Norton, general manager of data solutions at AdImpact, said. “With such strong numbers kicking off the season, it seems that NFL programming will once again reign supreme over consumer’s viewing habits this year.”

In addition to AdImpact’s numbers, Samba TV reports that 17.3 million U.S. households watched the Thursday Night Football matchup between the Chiefs and the Ravens (NBC) during the L+0D window.

The ratings, which happened despite a rain delay, are a great sign for the NFL, which is looking to build off of many record ratings in its 2023-2024 season.

For instance, Nielsen’s final Super Bowl 58 numbers showed Paramount’s broadcast reaching 123.7 million average viewers, making it the most-watched telecast ever. The game was up 7.4% over Fox’s Super Bowl 57 matchup between the Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, which came in at 115.1 million average viewers.

Buyers recently told ADWEEK that sports, specifically the NFL and college football, would be the most coveted inventory this upfront season, with the NFL regularly seeing around 90% sellout from the upfront.

Though not the sole cause, experts have attributed some of the recent interest surge in the sport to the “Swift Effect,” thanks to Taylor Swift’s whirlwind romance with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, which began in 2023. Swift was present again at Thursday night’s game, and of course, Swifties took note of her attendance.

Kelce himself has also become a powerhouse in the advertising world.

Call it the “Travis Kelce effect,” but according to television data and analytics firm EDO, Kelce’s ads for brands like Campbell’s, DirecTV, and Pfizer last year were 15%, 24%, and 27% more effective, respectively, than the ads without him. After his relationship with Swift went public, Kelce’s ads with Pfizer and Experian were 9% and 13% more effective when they were featured during a game in which Swift made an appearance.

“[Swift] is a phenomenon that transcends everything, but Kelce has done an amazing job of turning that into standalone stardom,” Kevin Krim, CEO of EDO, told ADWEEK earlier this month.

Whatever the case for the NFL, the sport’s Swift ratings climb continues.