Chiefs-Chargers on YouTube generates 17.3 million viewers

The first ever YouTube free stream of a regular season game did well, as expected. It didn't do as well as I personally had expected.

Via Jennifer Maas of Variety.com, Chiefs-Chargers drew a global audience of 17.3 million viewers on Friday night, from Brazil. In the U.S., the number was 16.2 million.

It's a strong number. It's up from the 14.2 million who watched Packers-Eagles on Peacock for the first Friday night of the season.

But Peacock is a paid service. The YouTube broadcast was free.

Also, Nielsen has introduced a new system for more accurately counting out-of-home viewers. That will naturally lead to higher numbers than last year.

The all-time streaming record came last Christmas, with more than 24 million domestically for Ravens-Texans (24.3 million) and Chiefs-Steelers (24.1 million).

Again, Netflix isn't free. That said, the captive audience on December 25 is conducive to bigger numbers.

Nothing generates a large crowd of simultaneous viewers like live NFL games. It just seems odd that a game involving the high-profile Chiefs didn't do more than 16.2 million viewers in the U.S. - or more than 1.1. million in all other countries combined.

It will be interesting to see whether the audience size is a function of the game being on YouTube, or whether it's a sign that Chiefs fatigue is settling in.

On the latter point, there will be plenty of additional evidence. Soon. On Sunday, the Chiefs host the Eagles in the prime late-afternoon window on Fox. The next week, it's Chiefs-Giants on NBC and Peacock. In Week 4, it's Ravens-Chiefs at 4:25 p.m. ET on Fox. In Week 5, Chiefs-Jaguars will be televised on Monday night by ABC and ESPN. The next week, it's back to Sunday Night Football, for a visit from the Lions.