Saturday’s qualifying games see a decrease in crowd numbers

During the first half of the divisional round, the trend was not NFL-friendly.

Total crowd numbers for Saturday’s two playoff games were down from last year.

The Saturday afternoon crowd was up from 32.3 million for Texans-Ravens a year ago. According to ESPN, multiple broadcasts of the Texans-Chiefs on Saturday on ESPN, ABC and ESPN+ generated an average audience of 32.7 million. This represents an increase of 1.2 percent over last year.

With the Ravens replacing the Chiefs, some were expecting a bigger bump with Kansas City in the mix instead of Baltimore. (The numbers for Sunday night’s game will confirm or disprove this dynamic. Last year, it was Chiefs-Bills — and 50.39 million viewers. This year, it’s Ravens-Bills.)

Meanwhile, last year’s Packers-49ers game on Fox averaged 37.5 million. This time, gunfire was exchanged between the leaders and the lions It fell to 33.6 million. This represents a decrease of 10.4 percent.

Adding the two games together, Saturday’s viewership dropped from 69.8 million to 66.3 million, a five percent drop.

Sunday’s numbers have not yet been published. Last year, NBC drew $40.4 million for the Buccaneers-Lions kickoff. This year, the Rams-Eagles were in the same place. Which, as mentioned above, was 50.39 million for the CBS Bills Chiefs a year ago.

How close can the Ravens-Bills get to that number?

The four divisional round games averaged 40 million last year. To get there, an average of 46.85 million is needed for Sunday’s games.