With Taylor Swift watching, the Chiefs' win over the Jets on 'Sunday Night Football' set more viewership records
Taylor Swift attended her second consecutive Chiefs game Sunday, this time with a group of A-list friends
Taylor Swift’s sudden presence in the NFL world is drawing massive numbers, especially among women.
The Kansas City Chiefs' 23-20 win over the New York Jets on Sunday night at MetLife Stadium — which the pop star attended with a group of celebrities amid rumors that she's dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce — was the most watched Sunday show since Super Bowl LVII earlier this year.
The “Sunday Night Football” matchup drew an average of 27 million viewers on NBC and NBC platforms. The game peaked at about 29.4 million viewers in the second quarter. Those figures are up about 22% from last year’s Week 4 “Sunday Night Football” game, which featured Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady. The game also drew 1.85 million viewers on streaming, which is NBC Sports’ largest audience for a regular-season Sunday NFL game in history.
The game drew massive numbers among women, too. According to NBC, the game drew an additional 2 million female viewers. Viewership among teen girls aged 12-17 grew 53% from the season-to-date average of the first three “Sunday Night Football” games. Women aged 18-24 was up 24%, and women 35-and-older increased 34%.
Kansas City was by far the top market for the game, with about 83% of homes watching. New York, despite the Jets' playing in the game, tied for ninth.
Swift first shocked the NFL world last week when she showed up to Arrowhead Stadium to watch the Chiefs roll past the Chicago Bears. She sat in a box with Donna Kelce amid long-running dating rumors linking her to Travis, and the two left the stadium together after the win. While nothing has been confirmed between the two, Swift then went to the game Sunday at MetLife Stadium alongside fellow A-list stars Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Hugh Jackman, Sophie Turner and more. Swift and Donna Kelce were seen in the suite again, too.
The rumors and Swift’s presence have turned Kelce into a superstar in his own right. His jersey sales spiked 400% after Swift’s first appearance last week, and Kelce’s podcast has held the top spot on Apple’s overall charts.
“Travis Kelce was already a football star, but after being linked to Taylor Swift, now he’s in an entirely different orbit,” Beth Booker, founder of Gracie PR, told Yahoo Sports. “Miss Americana is turning Travis Kelce into America’s sweetheart.”
It’s unclear how long Swift’s presence will keep impacting Kelce, the Chiefs and the sport as a whole. While it does, the NFL and the networks are clearly taking full advantage.
