The San Francisco 49ers’ comeback win over the Detroit Lions in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game drew the attention of the entire sports world.
San Francisco found itself down by 17 points at halftime, only to see Brock Purdy do his best Joe Montana impersonation in leading the team back for a 34-31 victory over Detroit.
By virtue of this win, San Francisco will now take on the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas on Feb. 11.
Sunday’s win also represented a ratings bonanza for Fox. The network released its numbers for the game, and they are absolutely staggering. According to Fox, viewership peaked with a projected 58,967,000 people tuning in between 9:15-9:30 PM ET.
The numbers are up 19% from the San Francisco 49ers’ loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in last season’s NFC Championship Game. It is the most-watched NFC title game in a dozen years. It is also the fourth most-watched non-Super Bowl telecast in Fox history.
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Interestingly enough, that 2012 NFC title game also featured the 49ers. They lost to the New York Giants in heartbreaking fashion after a Kyle Williams fumble in overtime.
If we needed any more proof of the popularity of the NFL today, these numbers have provided that.
For context, the 2023 World Series between the eventual champion Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks drew an average of 9.08 million viewers. The 2023 NBA Finals between the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat drew an average of less than 12 million viewers.