Rewrite the Record Books: Texans at Chiefs Deliver 33.8 Million Viewers, …

• Audience Surpasses Every NFL Game - Regular Season or Playoffs - on ESPN Dating Back to 1987
• ESPN Delivers 4% Year-Over-Year Increase From Last Season's Divisional Presentation
• Across All Networks, NFL's Best Viewership for a Divisional Saturday Afternoon Kickoff in 10 Seasons
• Third Consecutive Season ESPN Punctuates Season-Long NFL Campaign with Its Most-Watched NFL Game Ever
• Postseason NFL Countdown Draws Nearly Five Million Viewers, Up 4% Year-Over-Year

ESPN's 2025 NFL Divisional Round presentation delivered a record-breaking audience across ESPN platforms, as the Houston Texans at the Kansas City Chiefs (Saturday, Jan. 18, 4:30 p.m. ET) is the company's most-watched NFL game of all-time. The 33.8 million viewers surpass each NFL on ESPN game, playoffs and regular season, since 1987 (38 seasons), the network's first year airing NFL games. ESPN's Texans at Chiefs Divisional matchup aired on ESPN, ABC, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes, and NFL+.

Additional ESPN's Texans-Chiefs Viewership Highlights:

• ESPN Up Year-Over-Year: ESPN bested its own audience from the 2024 Divisional Round (Texans at Ravens) with a 4% audience increase, which was also played on the same day and time slot, and earned a then-record audience of 32.3 million viewers.
• NFL's Best Divisional Saturday Afternoon Viewership in 10 Seasons: ESPN's Texans-Chiefs viewership is the NFL's top audience for a Divisional Saturday afternoon (4:30 p.m. kickoff) in 10 seasons, beginning in January 2016 to present, across all networks.
• ESPN Delivers Saturday's Top Peak Audience Across All Networks: ESPN's audience peaked at 39.5 million viewers (7-7:15 p.m.), the highest peak audience of any network on Saturday, Jan. 18.
• Disney's Most-Watched Non-Super Bowl NFL Game: ESPN's Texans-Chiefs' 33.8 million viewers marks Disney's most-watched NFL game, excluding Super Bowls.
  • The audience bested all 25 Disney NFL Playoff games in the previous 29 years, including 14 exclusively on ABC (1996-2005), ten available on ABC and ESPN (2016-24) and one solely on ESPN (2015).
  • The game also surpassed every regular season game exclusively on ABC since 1996.

Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Lisa Salters Era Deliver ESPN's Most-Watched Games
ESPN re-writing its own record books has become a modern trend, as each season of the Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, and Lisa Salters era (2022-23, 23-24, and 24-25 seasons) has concluded with ESPN airing its most-watched game of all-time. In that same period, accounting for all games in regular season and postseason, ESPN has aired seven of its eight most-watched games.

ESPN's Most-Watched NFL Games Ever, Dating Back to 1987

All ESPN-produced games. All games aired on, at least, ESPN and ABC, except Christmas Day game which was only on ABC. Viewership above does not include ESPN Deportes for historical purposes

Postseason NFL Countdown Draws Nearly Five Million Viewers Leading Into the Game, Up 4% Year-Over-Year
Postseason NFL Countdown aired on ABC and ESPN and drew nearly five million viewers for the 2+ hour pregame show (2-4:15 p.m.). The 4.9 million viewers represent an audience increase year-over-year for the show, which aired in the same time slot and on the same networks last season leading into the Texans and Ravens.

The show featured the Monday Night Countdown crew: Scott Van Pelt with Ryan Clark, Jason Kelce, Marcus Spears, Michelle Beisner-Buck and Adam Schefter, who were joined by guest analyst and Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins. For the regular season, Monday Night Countdown was up 5% year-over-year.

Record Breaking Playoff Viewership Adds to ESPN's Strong 2024-25 Season
ESPN's record-breaking playoff viewership concludes the company's 2024-25 season which delivered Monday Night Football's second most-watched season in the ESPN era, joining the 2023 campaign as the two most-watched MNF seasons (2006 - present). This season, Monday Night Football averaged 15 million viewers a game and reached 112 million fans along the way.