Chiefs-Ravens Is Most-Watched NFL Kickoff Game Ever

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The one-two punch of Patrick Mahomes and Taylor Swift delivered record numbers for the NFL. 

Thursday night’s thriller between the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens was the most-watched NFL kickoff game on record, averaging 28.9 million viewers across NBC Sports and Peacock, NBC said Friday afternoon.

The audience peaked at an eye-popping 33 million viewers during the second quarter.

Pop superstar Swift was in the audience cheering on boyfriend Travis Kelce of the Chiefs. NBC producers served up plenty of shots of the singer arriving at the game—and cheering on her beau from a luxury box. Chief president Mark Donovan told Front Office Sports in an interview earlier this week, “We’ll be prepared for her, and obviously welcome her with open arms,” but also that, “We’re not trying to capitalize on this. We’re trying to celebrate it, but it’s not about doing too much or showing her every touchdown or anything like that.”

The Chiefs, reigning Super Bowl champions the past two years running, are aiming to pull off a three-peat while avoiding distractions and eyeing a possible stadium move.

Thursday’s game marked the second most live-streamed NBC NFL game ever, trailing only Super Bowl LVI. Not surprisingly, Kansas City and Baltimore were the top-two TV markets for the game, which went down to the wire with the Ravens nearly tying it up on a final drive, but ultimately losing 27—20.

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The post Chiefs-Ravens Is Most-Watched NFL Kickoff Game Ever appeared first on Front Office Sports.



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