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Amazon’s Prime Video set a new NFL streaming record, drawing 31.61 million viewers last Saturday night to a wild card playoff game between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers.
Helped by the Bears’ thrilling comeback, and the fact that it was just the third playoff meeting between the two storied franchises, the game shattered the previous streaming mark of 27.52 million. Chicago scored 25 points in the fourth quarter to pull out the win, 31-27. The previous NFL high was established by Netflix on Christmas Day with its Detroit Lions-Minnesota Vikings telecast.
Streaming has become an essential part of the sports media landscape, with Amazon, Netflix, Apple and YouTube all now major rightsholders. The NFL’s main media partners, Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal and Fox, also all have streaming services that complement their linear broadcast or occasionally get streaming exclusives.
Amazon’s playoff splash comes on the heels of a record-setting regular season for Prime Video. In the tech outlet’s fourth season of exclusive Thursday Night Football streams, it averaged 15.33 million viewers for the 15-game season, up 16% over 2024 and the highest ever in the 20-year history of TNF. Part of the upswing is due to Nielsen’s updated methodology, which incorporates out-of-home viewing, a key element for sports programming. The change has lifted all boats given the sheer scale of NFL telecasts.
The Packers-Bears tune-in vaulted 43% over Prime Video’s 2025 wild card game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens, which was also played on a Saturday night. This year’s playoff contest hit its peak audience of 34.16 million viewers between 9:15 and 9:29 p.m. ET, Prime Video said.
The Bears-Packers game drew the most concurrent viewers and highest single-day global viewership in the history of Prime Video, according to the company’s first-party data. Both metrics, which the company did not reveal with numbers, are important – the former to continue reinforcing the technical capabilities of streaming and the latter to reflect the global ambitions of both Amazon and the league. The NFL has continued to expand its slate of non-U.S. games in recent years, and is expected to sell that overseas slate to a new media partner when an opt-out clause in current rights deals kicks in after the 2029 season.
Prior to taking on the exclusive TNF rights in 2022, Prime Video had simulcast games for several years. It has recently added NBA and WNBA rights to its growing live sports roster.
“We could not have asked for a better game on Saturday, and very much appreciate our partners at the NFL who entrusted us to present such an incredible matchup,” said Jay Marine, Head of Prime Video U.S., Global Sports, and Advertising. “Surpassing 31 million viewers and setting an all-time streaming record illustrates our remarkable growth in a relatively short amount of time.”
Prime Video’s strong results coincided with strong numbers for other NFL games during the tightly contested first round of this year’s playoffs. Paramount said its coverage of the Buffalo Bills’ win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday averaged 32.71 million viewers, up +5% from a year ago and the highest ever for the early-Sunday window on wild card weekend. Fox said its coverage of the San Francisco 49ers’ defeat of the Philadelphia Eagles drew an average of 41.5 million viewers on Sunday, while Saturday’s L.A. Rams victory over the Carolina Panthers pulled in 28.3 million.
English (US) ·