49ers’ thrilling playoff run is drawing a huge TV audience

Back-to-back San Francisco 49ers playoff games have drawn massive television viewership numbers — and there's reason to expect a third, too.

The 49ers have proven a lot in these last two weeks in the playoffs.

But the thing that may be resonating with the NFL the most? It’s good for the NFL’s bottom line when the 49ers are in the playoffs.

It’s been back-to-back weeks of massive television ratings numbers coming out of the 49ers’ two games, when each was against a longtime rival and went down to the final play.

This past weekend’s face-off in frozen Green Bay had 36.9 million viewers on FOX, which FOX says is the most-watched Saturday show since the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. And, according to SportsBusinessJournal, 67 percent of television viewers in the Bay Area were tuned in to the game.

It was part of a rating bonanza weekend for the NFL, which saw all four games crack 30 million viewers and the Buffalo-Kansas City game bring in 42.7 million viewers — as well as seeing 90 percent of viewers in the Kansas City market tuned in to the game in the insane fourth quarter.

The wild-card round win over the Cowboys saw 41.5 million viewers tune in to CBS, per the SportsBusinessJournal, which was the most for any wild-card game in seven years. That game peaked at 50.2 million viewers in its final hour, as people tuned in to watch the 49ers hold off a desperate Cowboys comeback attempt.

That game led wild-card weekend in ratings by a wide margin, with the next-highest viewed game clocking in at more than 10 million fewer viewers (Tampa Bay’s win over Philadelphia had 30.4 million). The combination of the 49ers-Cowboys game and Sunday’s overtime Chiefs win have given CBS its highest ratings in 10 years through the playoffs’ first two rounds.

The 49ers-Rams Week 18 matchup slot also rated the highest of any from that weekend, bringing in more viewers (19.3 million) than all three of the standalone games of that week (Chiefs-Broncos, Cowboys-Eagles and Chargers-Raiders), according to ShowBuzzDaily. The stakes were high as the 49ers had a playoff berth on the line.

Now, San Francisco and Los Angeles are set to play again for the NFC Championship. While we don’t know which team will win and head to the Super Bowl, it’s safe to assume that the NFL will feel like a winner when the ratings come back after the game.