All Eyes on Kansas City: Chiefs vs. Texans Makes ESPN History

The Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans made ESPN history during Saturday's divisional round showdown.
Jan 18, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) reacts after catching a pass for a touchdown against the Houston Texans during the fourth quarter of a 2025 AFC divisional round game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images
Jan 18, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) reacts after catching a pass for a touchdown against the Houston Texans during the fourth quarter of a 2025 AFC divisional round game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images / Denny Medley-Imagn Images
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While the Kansas City Chiefs were marching toward a win over the Houston Texans on Saturday to secure a spot in their seventh-consecutive AFC championship game, Kansas City was helping make another kind of history.

The Chiefs and Texans faced off in ESPN's most-watched NFL game ever, the network announced on Monday.

According to ESPN, 32.7 million viewers watched the divisional round showdown, resulting in the ESPN's most-viewed NFL game, dating back to 1987. Chiefs-Texans also produced the most-watched divisional round Saturday kickoff game of the past decade, regardless of network.

"ESPN’s 2025 NFL Divisional Round presentation delivered a record-breaking audience across ESPN platforms, as the Houston Texans at the Kansas City Chiefs (Saturday, Jan. 18, 4:30 p.m. ET) is the company’s most-watched NFL game of all-time," ESPN communications director Derek Volner wrote in a press release. "The 32.7 million viewers surpass each NFL on ESPN game, playoffs and regular season, since 1987 (38 seasons), the first year when the network aired NFL games.

"ESPN’s Texans-Chiefs viewership is expected to surpass 33 million viewers when Nielsen reports the final audience this week. The current viewership of 32.7 million viewers includes the vast majority, but not all audiences from ESPN, ABC and ESPN+."

The press release also notes that Saturday's showdown was Disney's most-watched non-Super Bowl NFL game, outshining 25 other Disney-company playoff games on ESPN and/or ABC.

The Chiefs could be in line to make more viewership history next weekend, as their Sunday showdown against the Buffalo Bills in the AFC championship game will be an early-evening matchup on CBS.

Read More: Chiefs Open as Narrow Favorites Over Bills in AFC Championship Game


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Joshua Brisco
JOSHUA BRISCO

Joshua Brisco is the editor and publisher of Kansas City Chiefs On SI and has covered the Chiefs professionally since 2017 across audio and written media.