The San Francisco 49ers pulled off a dramatic late-game comeback against the Green Bay Packers inside Levi’s Stadium Saturday night.
Sophomore quarterback Brock Purdy overcame struggles early in the game to lead the 49ers down the field for the game-winning drive. By virtue of this win, the 49ers are appearing in the NFC Championship Game for the fourth time in five seasons.
Interest in the game was at a high level, too. According to Josh Dubow of the Associated Press, the game is projected to be the most-watched Saturday broadcast since the 1994 Winter Olympics. Fox projects that 37.5 million people tuned into the game.
The 1994 Winter Olympics included an attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. Hence, the interest level.
To put these TV ratings into perspective, the 2023 World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and eventual champion Texas Rangers drew an average of just 9.08 million viewers. The 2023 NBA Finals between the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat didn’t draw more than 13.08 million viewers for any of the five games.
Yeah, the NFL is still king. That’s for sure.