TV Ratings: YouTube’s First Exclusive NFL Game Draws 16 Million U.S. Viewers

YouTube’s first exclusive NFL game drew a sizable audience, coming in ahead of last year’s streaming-exclusive contest in the opening week of the season.

The streamer says 17.3 million people worldwide watched the Los Angeles Chargers’ win over the Kansas City Chiefs Friday in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The great majority of those viewers came from the United States — 16.2 million, based on Nielsen figures that include first-party data from YouTube. The remaining 1.1 million viewers were outside the U.S., according to YouTube’s data. The U.S. total also includes over-the-air broadcasts in the teams’ home markets.

The 16.2 million viewers in the U.S. is a 16 percent improvement over last year’s opening week Friday night game (also played in Brazil), which drew 14 million viewers. The total includes viewing via the YouTube app YouTube TV, the main telecast and alternate feeds featuring YouTube creators. NBC Sports handled production of the game.

Ratings figures for the rest of the NFL’s opening weekend, including Thursday’s kickoff game, weren’t available at press time. That’s due largely to Nielsen launching its “big data plus panel” ratings on Sept. 1, combining its traditional home-based panel sample with measurement from smart TVs and set-top boxes in 45 million households. The big data addition means Nielsen’s same-day ratings will come two or three days after a program airs rather than the day after.

This story will be updated as additional NFL week one ratings become available.