Bears' wild card win sets NFL streaming record with 31 million viewers

Chicago’s come-from-behind victory over Green Bay in Saturday’s wild-card round became the first NFL game to have over 30 million viewers on a streaming service.

The Bears’ 31-27 victory averaged 31.61 million on Amazon Prime Video, according to Nielsen, and broke the previous standard by 4 million. That mark was set on Christmas Day, when Minnesota’s win over Detroit averaged 27.52 million on Netflix.

Chicago trailed 27-16 with just under seven minutes left in the fourth quarter before Caleb Williams threw a pair of touchdown passes to lead the Bears to their first playoff win since the 2010 season.

It was the second year that Prime Video has had a playoff game. Last year’s wild-card game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens averaged 22.07 million.

It was the third season the NFL has streamed the Saturday night wild-card game. The AFC wild-card game between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs during the 2023 season averaged 23 million on Peacock.

The most-watched game of the weekend was the Sunday late-afternoon game between San Francisco and Philadelphia, which averaged 41 million on Fox. That’s a 14% increase over last year’s game between the Eagles and Green Bay in that timeslot.

The 49ers’ 23-19 victory was the most-watched wild-card game on any network since the 2021 season, when San Francisco against Dallas averaged 41.5 million on CBS.



(AP Photo Erin Hooley)