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The NFL remains king of the American sports world, as evidenced by the viewership numbers put up by the AFC and NFC Championship games on Sunday.
According to reports, the NFC title game between the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers, which was effectively finished by halftime, had 47.5 million viewers, while the nightcap AFC title game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals drew 53.1 million.
The 53.1 million viewers, which peaked at nearly 59.374 million viewers in the decisive 4th quarter, made the matchup the most-watch AFC title game in four years. For comparison, the 2022 World Cup final between Leo Messi’s Argentina and Kylian Mbappe’s France back in December — undoubtedly the biggest sporting event elsewhere in the world with billions of viewers globally — had 25 million viewers in the United States.
Ultimately, the NFC title game saw the Eagles advance past the 49ers by a score of 31-7, while the Chiefs edged past the Bengals by a score of 23-20, which is the exact score the Bengals beat them by in last year’s AFC Championship.
It’s certainly no surprise that the Chiefs and Bengals put up massive numbers as the matchup has developed into arguably the NFL’s premier rivalry given the frequency of matchups (four in the last two seasons) and the talent of the two quarterbacks in Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow.
Super Bowl LVII — which will be held at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on Sunday, February 12 — will see Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles take on Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. At this time, the Birds are favored over KC by 2.5 points.