Wild-card round has highest average viewership of six-game format

The NFL previously applied the term "super" to the wild-card round of the playoffs. This year, the ratings were.

Via Sports Business Journal, the six games televised by Fox (which had two), CBS, Prime Video, NBC and ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 attracted an average of 31.9 million viewers.

That's a 13-percent increase from last year, and the best since the NFL expanded the playoffs from six teams to seven in 2020, which grew the wild-card round from four games to six.

The total average is the best since the four-game format attracted an average of 32.6 million in 2016 for these games: Raiders-Texans, Lions-Seahawks, Dolphins-Steelers, and Packers-Giants. The smallest victory margin that year was 13 points, with an average score of 30-11.

This year, four of the games went down to the wire. Two of the games were lopsided.