Amazon Prime will exclusively stream an NFL playoff game next season after NBC’s Peacock pulled in record numbers for streaming the Chiefs vs Dolphins wild card this season

Amazon Prime is set to carry at least one NFL playoff game next season, according to multiple reports.

During this year’s postseason the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins played each other in the first-ever NFL playoff game to be shown exclusively on a streaming service after it was only viewable on Peacock.

According to Joe Flint of the Wall Street Journal, the Chiefs vs Dolphins game ‘accounted for 30 percent of web traffic,’ and became the most streamed event of all time in the United States.

According to Nielsen, the Chiefs´ 26-7 victory averaged 23 million viewers on Peacock, NFL+ and on NBC affiliates in Kansas City and Miami, and had a total reach of 27.6 million.

By comparison, the late Saturday game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Jacksonville Jaguars on Jan. 14, 2023, averaged 20.61 million viewers.

This year’s Chiefs vs Dolphins game was the first playoff game exclusively streamed online 

The game was streamed on NBC Universal’s Peacock service and set records on the website

Comcast reported at the end of last year that Peacock had 31 million subscribers. According to the subscription analytics firm Antenna, there were 2.8 million new subscribers to the streaming service during the weekend of the wild-card game.

NBC Universal paid $110 million for the rights to the game, with Amazon expected to pay higher.

Under the NFL’s contract, each of its four broadcast partners – NBC, CBS, Fox and ESPN/ABC – gets at least one wild-card game. Of the two remaining games, one rotates each year between NBC, CBS and Fox, while the other is up for bid.

This season´s 16-game package on Prime Video averaged 11.86 million viewers, according to Nielsen, a 24 percent increase over last year´s inaugural season. 

Twelve games averaged more than 10 million, doubling 2022, and triggering some performance clauses allowing it to carry a playoff game.