With the NFC Championship Game going down to the wire, it was no doubt that would draw a huge TV audience. If, for no other reason than this year’s numbers have been doing nothing but going up.
The viewership peaked with a projected 58,967,000 people tuning in between 9:15-9:30 p.m. ET. Because of the way the numbers had been increasing each week, we predicted both games would go over 50 million. This one more than delivered.
While those numbers show a 19% increase over last year’s game that the Philadelphia Eagles beat the 49ers 31-7, we wanted to see where it ranked all time.
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Most-watched NFC Championship Games of all-time
| Rank | Season | Game | Outcome | Date | Network | Avg. number of viewers |
| 1 | 1981 | Dallas at San Francisco | SF 28, Dal 27 | Jan. 10, 1982 | CBS | 68,690,000 |
| 2 | 2009 | Minnesota at New Orleans | NO 31, Minn 28 (OT) | Jan. 24, 2010 | Fox | 57,933,000 |
| 3 | 2011 | New York Giants at San Francisco | NYG 20, SF 17 | Jan. 22, 2012 | Fox | 57,635,000 |
| 4 | 1994 | Dallas at San Francisco | SF 38, Dal 28 | Jan. 15, 1995 | Fox | 56,808,830 |
| 5 | 2023 | Detroit at San Francisco | SF 34, Det 31 | Jan. 28, 2024 | Fox | 56,691,000 |
| 6 | 2007 | N.Y. Giants at Green Bay | NYG 23, GB 20 (OT) | Jan. 20, 2008 | Fox | 53,941,000 |
| 7 | 2013 | San Francisco at Seattle | Sea 23, SF17 | Jan. 19, 2014 | Fox | 55,911,000 |
| 8 | 1995 | Green Bay at Dallas | Dal 38, GB 27 | Jan. 14, 1996 | Fox | 52,684,500 |
| 9 | 1992 | Dallas at San Francisco | Dal 30, SF 20 | Jan. 17, 1993 | CBS | 51,987,000 |
| 10 | 1977 | Minnesota at Dallas | Dal 23, Minn 6 | Jan. 1, 1978 | CBS | 51,640,000 |