Over 17 million viewers from around the world tuned in to see the Los Angeles Chargers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs on YouTube. The much-discussed NFL game set a record for the platform, marking the most concurrent viewers of a live stream in YouTube history.
The broadcast drew an average minute audience of over 17.3 million global viewers. According to Nielsen, 16.2 million of that average minute audience came from the U.S., while YouTube reported that an additional 1.1 million came from outside of the country. Viewers tuned in from over 230 countries and territories around the globe, according to YouTube.
Because Nielsen used a custom analysis to measure the ratings for the YouTube game, these numbers can’t be directly compared to broadcast viewership for the NFL or even its streaming rivals. But even with that large asterisk, the viewership for the Brazil game was fairly consistent with the viewership for other streamers.
Throughout the 2024 season, Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football saw an average viewership of 13.2 million viewers. It peaked with the Wild Card matchup between Pittsburgh and Baltimore, which brought in an average minute audience of 22.1 million viewers, the most in Prime Video’s partnership with the league.
As for Netflix, the streamer’s two exclusive Christmas Day games averaged 30 million AMA globally for the Chiefs vs. Steelers game and 31.3 million AMA globally for the Ravens vs. Texans game. Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel found that those two games averaged 26.5 million U.S. viewers.
The Chargers vs. Chiefs game also marked the first time YouTube creators were brought into the action in a major way. The broadcast featured exclusive content from MrBeast, Haley Kalil, Michelle Khare and Marques Brownlee. Deestroying, Kay Adams and Peter Overzet all provided commentary. Additionally, several creators provided customized commentary to their fans using YouTube’s Watch With feature, including IShowSpeed, Tom Grossi, Robegrill, SKabeche and CazéTV.
