The Houston Texans line up versus the Kansas City Chiefs throughout the 4th quarter at Arrowhead Stadium on September 10, 2020 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Jamie Squire | Getty Images
The numbers are out, and the National Football League scores for its 2020 Kickoff video game Thursday brought in approximately 19.3 million audiences for the night, NBC Sports stated on Friday. That’s about a 12% drop versus in 2015’s season opener.
The network stated Thursday’s video game in between the protecting champ Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans peaked at 22 million audiences around 9: 15 p.m. to 9: 30 p.m. Eastern. The Chiefs beat the Texans, 34-20, at Arrowhead Stadium in front of a crowd of approximately 17,000 viewers.
According to the network, the video game is just the 2nd sporting occasion because the Super Bowl in February to tape-record a minimum of 20 million audiences. The Academy Awards on Feb. 9 drew 23.6 million audiences.
Despite the surpassing 20 million audiences throughout its peak, scores decreased more than 12% from 2019. Last year’s opener in between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers balanced 22 million audiences and peaked at 23.9 million audiences.
The NFL did have competitors on the night, as Covid-19 required other leagues, consisting of the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League, to relay championship game throughout the NFL’s opener. Other leagues hosting video games Thursday consisted of Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and tennis’ U.S. Open.
The NFL likewise took its position of social oppression triggers, which might have played a part in the scores decrease. The video game opened to gamers and personnel from each group locking arms to reveal unity following months of social discontent following the killings of Black individuals by law enforcement officer, consisting of the May 25 killing of George Floyd.
The leading 5 markets for the video game beyond the 2 group cities consisted of Denver, Austin, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Philadelphia, according to NBC, which utilized information from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.
NBC will host a 2nd season-opener on Sunday when the Los Angeles Rams host the Dallas Cowboys at the brand-new $5 billion SoFi Stadium.
Disclosure: NBC and NBC Sports are owned by NBCUniversal, the moms and dad business of CNBC.
