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Bears-Packers pays off for Amazon, NFL
As regularly discussed here around ratings, important factors in any viewership number include the teams or markets involved and the quality of the game. For the first weekend of this year's NFL playoffs, perhaps the best matchup from a teams/markets standpoint was the NFC North rivalry clash between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears. That matchup wound up delivering perhaps the weekend's most fascinating game as well, thanks to the Bears' remarkable rally from an 18-point halftime deficit (and 15-point fourth quarter deficit) to win 31-27. And that wound up paying benefits for broadcaster Prime Video, which averaged 31.61 million viewers to shatter the previous NFL streaming-exclusive record (27.52 million for Netflix's Lions-Vikings Christmas Day game last month). Here's more from their release:
Prime Video delivered another record-breaking presentation on Saturday with 31.61 million viewers for its Packers-Bears Wild Card Playoff. Per Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel measurement, the event’s viewership established a new record for the most-streamed NFL game in history, shattering the previous mark by more than four million viewers, which was set on Christmas Day (vs. 27.52M, Lions-Vikings, 12/25/25).
Packers-Bears attracted a +43% year-over-year viewership increase over Prime’s 2025 Wild Card Playoff between the Steelers and Ravens, which was also presented on a Saturday night (1/11/25). Steelers-Ravens averaged 22.07 million viewers on Prime, which stood as an all-time high for any event on Prime Video until Packers-Bears eclipsed that mark on Saturday by nearly 10 million viewers. Saturday’s Packers-Bears game generated a peak audience of 34.16M between 9:15 and 9:29 p.m. ET, establishing another all-time high for Prime Video.
According to Amazon first-party viewership data, Packers-Bears attracted the most concurrent viewers and highest single-day global viewership in the history of Prime Video.
“We could not have asked for a better game on Saturday, and very much appreciate our partners at the NFL who entrusted us to present such an incredible matchup,” said Jay Marine, Head of Prime Video U.S., Global Sports, and Advertising. “Surpassing 31 million viewers and setting an all-time streaming record illustrates our remarkable growth in a relatively short amount of time. We’re thankful for all the fans who tuned in on Saturday night and throughout this historic season of NFL games on Prime, and will keep working hard and innovating on their behalf.”
As per that point about this remarkable season, it has indeed been that for Prime Video. They announced last week that they'd posted an average of 15.33 million viewers for their full Thursday Night Football package this season, which marks the best-ever season for TNF (remarkable, considering how this package previously aired on broadcast networks including CBS, NBC, and Fox). They'd been tracking that way in early December, averaging 14.9 million viewers per game to that point, but the final numbers wound up being even better for them. And these playoff numbers further illustrate how important of a regular broadcast partner they're becoming for the NFL.
Yes, this game likely would have done well regardless of where it was broadcast. The Bears-Packers rivalry is enormous and historic, dating back to 1921 when both teams were in what was then called the American Professional Football Association (it rebranded to the NFL the next year), and when the Bears were still known as the Chicago Staleys). The Bears also play in Nielsen's third-largest media market, and while the Packers don't have a massive inherent market (Milwaukee is #38, and Green Bay-Appleton is #68), they've often been one of the NFL's best national draws given their national fan base (including #5 in 2016-17 when I did a comprehensive analysis on some of this). And the comeback likely helped overall, albeit with the caveat that while close games are valuable for ratings, big comebacks aren't always necessarily helpful (if a game looks out of hand, plenty of people turn it off or change the channel).
Still, the Prime Video takeaway here is very good. These numbers suggest they have enough market penetration and are established enough as a NFL broadcasting home (something where their week-to-week TNF consistency really helps them versus the more occasional streaming exclusives from the likes of Netflix and Peacock) that they can post not just "good for streaming" numbers with the right matchup, but numbers that are quite impressive overall. (This is also the case for their season-long TNF record). And these playoff numbers were a 43 percent jump over their postseason game last year, which was also a good rivalry with a national following (Steelers-Ravens), and was also in the Saturday night window. That marks an incredible capper to a great NFL year for Prime Video, and likely sets them up for even more success next season.
