As a Chicago Bears fan, do you ever find yourself thinking, Man, life’s just so much better when the Bears are good?
Well, that’s how the National Football League feels, too.
The Bears are a ratings juggernaut even when they are in the midst of a down year, so it’s no surprise that with Chicago in the postseason for the first time since 2020, with a winning season for the first time since 2018, and with a playoff win for the first time since the 2010 season, the Chicago Bears set a viewership record.
To be fair, the Los Angeles Rams were involved in the record, but let’s be honest, do you know any Rams fans in real life?
From the NBC press release: Sunday’s Los Angeles Rams-Chicago Bears thriller at a frigid Soldier Field delivered NBC Sports’ most-watched NFL Divisional Playoff audience on record, with an average of 45.4 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital platforms and NFL Digital platforms, based on official Nielsen Big Data + Panel and digital data from Adobe Analytics.
The Chicago market did its part with a big-time 34.7/66 local rating (#1 overall), while the Los Angeles market averaged a 16.3/55 (not even the top 10).
Jeff Agrest, the Chicago Sun-Times deputy sports editor/media columnist, shared that the local rating equates to about 1.27 million households watching on NBC in the Chicago market, which is damn near everyone.
Per NBC, viewership went up every hour of the game and peaked at 52.6 million for the game’s final minutes.
Get ready for even more prime time and standalone games for Caleb Williams and company in 2026.
Here are the top 10 metered markets for the Rams at the Bears game.
(Based on 56 metered markets)
