The Houston Texans line up towards the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs in the course of the fourth quarter at Arrowhead Stadium on September 10, 2020 in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri.
Jamie Squire | Getty Photos
The numbers are out, and the Nationwide Soccer League scores for its 2020 Kickoff sport Thursday attracted a median of 19.three million viewers for the night time, NBC Sports activities mentioned on Friday. That is a couple of 12% drop versus final 12 months’s season opener.
The community mentioned Thursday’s sport between the defending champion Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and Houston Texans peaked at 22 million viewers round 9:15 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Japanese. The Chiefs beat the Texans, 34-20, at Arrowhead Stadium in entrance of a crowd of roughly 17,000 spectators.
Based on the community, the sport is barely the second sporting occasion because the Tremendous Bowl in February to file a minimum of 20 million viewers. The Academy Awards on Feb. 9 drew 23.6 million viewers.
Regardless of the surpassing 20 million viewers throughout its peak, ratings declined more than 12% from 2019. Final 12 months’s opener between the Chicago Bears and Inexperienced Bay Packers averaged 22 million viewers and peaked at 23.9 million viewers.
The NFL did have competitors on the night time, as Covid-19 compelled different leagues, together with the Nationwide Basketball Affiliation and Nationwide Hockey League, to broadcast playoff video games in the course of the NFL’s opener. Different leagues internet hosting video games Thursday included Main League Baseball, Main League Soccer and tennis’ U.S. Open.
The NFL additionally took its stance of social injustice causes, which can have performed an element within the scores decline. The sport opened to gamers and employees from every workforce locking arms to indicate unity following months of social unrest following the killings of Black individuals by law enforcement officials, together with the Could 25 killing of George Floyd.
The highest 5 markets for the sport outdoors of the 2 workforce cities included Denver, Austin, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Philadelphia, based on NBC, which used knowledge from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.
NBC will host a second season-opener on Sunday when the Los Angeles Rams host the Dallas Cowboys on the new $5 billion SoFi Stadium.
Disclosure: NBC and NBC Sports activities are owned by NBCUniversal, the mother or father firm of CNBC.
