ESPN's Monday-night NFL wild-card broadcast between the Houston Texans and Pittsburgh Steelers averaged 29.1 million viewers, marking a strong performance despite a lopsided 30-6 Texans victory.
The figure, which includes simulcasts across Disney properties like ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and Deportes, ties for the second-best wild-card viewership in ESPN history and rises 15% from last year's Vikings-Rams Monday night playoff game (25.4 million). The game peaked at 33 million viewers just before halftime, hinting at even greater potential with a closer contest.
This caps a historic wild-card weekend overall, with the other four games setting milestones—including Amazon Prime Video's new NFL streaming record of 31.6 million for its exclusive Packers-Bears coverage.
The Texans-Steelers matchup also marked the final game for longtime Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, who stepped down Tuesday after 19 seasons without a single losing record.
Uncertainty lingers over whether this was ESPN's last Monday-night wild-card game in the slot, as the separate five-year agreement with the NFL for those contests has expired amid upcoming media rights negotiations. Disney has expressed interest in extending it, building on ESPN's strong regular-season Monday Night Football performance.
Comparisons to last year's non-competitive Monday playoff (also shifted due to wildfires) come with caveats, but the blowout did not deter audiences.