The Amazon Prime Video streaming service has reported its Thursday Night Football (TNF) broadcasts of American football's NFL have achieved a double-digit year-on-year percentage viewership gain for the seventh week running.
The streaming service has exclusively broadcast the TNF fixtures since the beginning of the 2022 season, but has broadcast TNF in some capacity since 2017 either through its primary service of gaming-focused free streaming site Twitch.
The week eight fixture between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Buffalo Bills drew 11.22 million viewers on the over-the-top streaming service, a 12% viewership increase from the previous year.
The 2022 week 8 TNF fixture between the Buccaneers and the Baltimore Ravens drew 10.01 million.
In August 2022, Amazon Prime stated its belief that its exclusive broadcasts of TNF would draw fewer viewers than previously when it had been aired on linear TV.
The streaming service believed that its 2022 slate of TNF fixtures would average around 12.5 million viewers, where in reality it averaged 10.29 million.
Now though, through the first seven TNF fixtures of the 2023 season, Amazon Prime is averaging 12.66 million, a 23% increase year-on-year and a potential indicator of the streaming service’s growing base of sports fans.
The seven straight weeks of TNF success have come off the back of its first TNF game of the season, Eagles vs Vikings, which became the most-streamed NFL game of all time and the most-watched TNF stream on Prime Video.
The game averaged 15.1 million viewers, an increase of 16% over the comparable fixture in the 2022 season, with a peak of 17 million viewers in the second quarter.
