The Detroit Lions won another game Sunday: the ratings game.

The Lions' 31-23 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday afternoon is NBC Sports’ most watched NFL divisional playoff game since 1994, averaging a total audience of 40.4 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital and NFL digital platforms, according to Nielsen custom fast national data and Adobe Analytics.

The game’s audience peaked at 49.1 million viewers from 6-6:12 p.m. ET as the Bucs tried to mount a final drive to tie the game, according to an NBC news release.

Led by Peacock, Bucs-Lions delivered NBC Sports’ third consecutive NFL playoff simulstream audience of at least 3 million viewers, registering an average minute audience of 3.3 million viewers across Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL digital properties.

The three NFL playoff games over the last two weekends on NBC averaged approximately 31.9 million viewers on broadcast alone — the largest NFL Playoff audience average for NBC stations since 2020.

The Lions' win over the Rams Jan. 14 alone averaged 35.8 million viewers across all platforms — with 31.9 million viewers on NBC stations — ranking as TV’s most-watched primetime show since Super Bowl LVII on Fox in February.

Additional viewership notes

• The Lions-Bucs viewership (40.4 million) is NBC Sports’ most-watched NFL divisional playoff in 30 years (41.1 million for a Jan. 16, 1994, matchup of Hall of Fame quarterbacks, as Joe Montana led the Kansas City Chiefs to a 28-20 win over Warren Moon and the Houston Oilers).

• Sunday’s game (3:03-6:12 p.m. ET) registered a national NBC TV household rating of 18.6/52.

The Lions-San Francisco 49ers game this Sunday also has the potential to beat ratings records as well. Kick off is 6:30 p.m. on Fox.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lions-Bucs TV rating was highest for NBC divisional game in 30 years