While the rest of the sport stopped around the world to focus on other ways to celebrate Christmas, in the United States the two sports with the greatest following designed their traditional special days on December 25. The NFL with two games and the NBA with fivetried to get closer to the fans on such a special date, achieving great success both in attendance at the stands and in television audiences.
However, it was American football that once again demonstrated its muscle in this regard and swept the considered best basketball league in the world with brutal numbers. With its broadcast through the payment platform Netflixmanaged to attract a record audience of almost 65 million total viewers for the matches of the Kansas City Chiefs against the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens against the Houston Texans. And that, according to Nielsen, only in the United States.
The afternoon game, in which reigning Super Bowl champions the Chiefs cruised to a 29-10 victory over the Steelers, drew an average of 24.1 million viewers, while Ravens-Texans (a blowout of the first by 31-2) even surpassed it with 24.3 million. The latter reached a peak of 27 million viewers during Beyoncé’s halftime performance.
NBA ‘Christmas Day’
Not even the best basketball league in the world, the NBA, could come close to these stratospheric numbers. The five-match schedule for the traditional ‘Christmas Day’ It obtained its best ratings in five years, with an increase of 84 percent compared to last season, but the average number of viewers per match remained at 5.25 million.
The most watched game was the Los Angeles Lakers against the Golden State Warriors, which ended with a 115-113 victory for LeBron James’ team. In fact, NBA sources explained on Thursday that it was their most-watched regular-season and Christmas game in five years, with an average of 7.76 million viewers and a peak of 8.32.
The list also included the New York Knicks defeating the San Antonio Spurs (average viewership of 4.91 million), the Minnesota Timberwolves beating the Dallas Mavericks (4.38 million), the Philadelphia 76ers defeating the Boston Celtics ( 5.16 million) and the Phoenix Suns defending themselves against the Denver Nuggets (3.84 million).
Considering these figures, it is understandable that many other competitions on the planet pay attention to American sports and their way of doing things. Nowhere else were elite matches scheduled for December 25, the English Premier League being the closest to this spectator-focused modelwith its ‘Boxing day’, played this Thursday, December 26, the day after Christmas.
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