We knew Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video was good. Better than good, really, given that Amazon is producing and streaming the show on its own. But this good? An average of some 15.3 million viewers across all platforms watched the Week 2 game (Amazon’s first; the Week 1 game was on NBC), and Nielsen alone noted 13 million viewers.
That Nielsen number was up 47% from the 2021 Week 2 Thursday night game, Amazon said. That game was only on the NFL Network.
By comparison, the September 12, 2022, Monday Night Football — available on ESPN, ABC, ESPN+, and ESPN Deportes — had just under 20 million viewers, according to ESPN. (It added another 1.5 million for its Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli broadcast, which showcases the Manning brothers commenting on the game.) The game was the most-watched Monday Night Football event since 2009, and its third-best since 2006.
It helped that the game itself was a good one, with the Kansas City Chiefs holding off the L.A. Chargers 27-24. Still, the stream wasn’t perfect. Amazon says it expects things to be even better going forward.
Also important, and not surprising given that the only way to watch the game was on Prime Video or NFL+, is that the audience was some 7 years younger than the usual NFL in 2021, down from age 53 to 46, and 8 years younger than the average Thursday Night Football audience in 2021, when games were shown on Fox, NFL Network and Prime Video.
Last week’s game was also the most-watched show of the night compared to broadcast or cable, with 10.5 million more viewers than Young Sheldon on CBS.
This week’s Thursday Night Football game sees AFC North rivals Pittsburgh and Cleveland go at it at 8:15 p.m. Eastern. Just remember to turn off captions on Prime Video.
Amazon says its numbers “combine 1st and 3rd party data to provide advertising customers, as well as the broader marketplace, with a more holistic picture of Thursday Night Football’s viewership.” Nielsen, meanwhile, “is based on a panel sampling of devices where Prime Video is available in the U.S., including set-top boxes, connected TVs, web and mobile, as well as Twitch, local over-the-air stations, out-of-home viewing, and NFL+.”
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