Lions-Chiefs NFL season opener pulls in massive viewership on NBC
To the surprise of nobody, the NFL remains king.
Thursday’s 2023 season opener between the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs averaged 26.8 million viewers on NBC, the second most-watched kickoff game since 2015 (Pittsburgh Steelers-New England Patriots, 27.4 million), per Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal.
In addition, viewership for Thursday’s contest from Arrowhead Stadium was a 24% increase to last year’s opener featuring the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams (21.7 million). Streaming numbers smashed records as well, as Karp noted in his report.
“NBC digital outlets drew an average minute audience of 2.8 million viewers,” Karp wrote. “That’s 2nd-best all-time for any NBC NFL game (even topping three Super Bowls). +60% from 2022 streaming audience for NFL Kickoff.”
Turns out, a duel between the upstart Lions and the reigning Super Bowl champion Chiefs is quite a draw.
The story going in was simple: How will Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs fare without Travis Kelce? Through 60 minutes, that story played out in the worst possible way for Kansas City, with a group of young wideouts falling short of expectations. Just one player, running back Isiah Pacheco, managed to surpass three receptions on the night.
Kadarius Toney, thought to have a large role in the offense, hauled in a single target for one yard. The 2021 first-round pick had three costly drops on the night, one tipping up in the air and into the hands of Lions rookie safety Brian Branch, who returned it the other way for six.
Lions take advantage of Chiefs’ miscues, win NFL season opener
Kansas City’s offensive struggles opened the door for the Lions, who notched their most significant victory of the Dan Campbell era.
“I didn’t learn anything. I got verification on what I already knew, and this is a resilient team,” Campbell said after the game. “It already was a resilient team… We added pieces to that resilient team. So we’re built to handle some stuff and we did that today against a very good opponent.”
He added: “We expected to win this game. We came in here and we knew what we needed to do… We knew it wasn’t going to be easy and we did that. Really what it means is that’s one [win]. That’s one. So, we’ve got to clean up our issues. It hurt us on some stuff today and be ready for Seattle in 10 days. That’s what it is.”