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PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – JANUARY 11: Jalen Hurts #1 of the Philadelphia Eagles looks to pass against the San Francisco 49ers during the first quarter in the NFC Wild Card Playoff game at Lincoln Financial Field on January 11, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
The Philadelphia Eagles shattered record-breaking viewership numbers in Sunday’s devastating loss.
As NBC Sports noted, Sunday’s Eagles-49ers matchup averaged 41 million viewers, making it the most-watched NFL Wild Card game on any network since 2022, according to Fox.
A successful Wild Card Weekend on FOX 👏🏈
It was also the most-watched broadcast of the entire playoff weekend, surpassing every other game across CBS, NBC, Amazon, and Fox by a wide margin.
This game peaked at 47,758,000 viewers and FOX’s viewership numbers were up over 14% since last year.
Even with the loss, the Philadelphia Eagles once again showed why the NFL’s biggest moments so often run through Philly.
“The NFL draws ratings like nothing else on American television,” ProFootballTalk’s Michael David Smith wrote.
He noted that 41 million viewers is a number “no other sport, awards show or scripted entertainment can even dream of.”
For better or worse, when the Eagles are involved, the country watches.
The Eagles Remain NFL’s Biggest TV Draw
The numbers from Sunday are not an outlier.
They are part of a growing trend.
Philly has quietly become one of the league’s most reliable ratings engines, especially in high-stakes or nationally televised games.
Some recent examples underline just how strong that pull is:
49ers vs. Eagles (Wild Card, Jan. 2026): 41 million viewers: most-watched Wild Card game since 2022
Eagles vs. Chiefs (Week 2, 2025): 33.8 million viewers: Fox’s most-watched regular-season game ever
Rams vs. Eagles (Divisional, Jan. 2025): 37.9 million viewers: NBC’s fourth-largest playoff audience on record
Bills vs. Eagles (Nov. 2023): 30.9 million viewers: highest-rated NFL window of that season
Whether it’s playoff football, a Super Bowl rematch, or a late-season national window, Eagles games routinely become must see TV.
41 Million Watched the Eagles’ Season Collapse in Real Time
What made the 41-million-viewer number sting even more for Philadelphia Eagles fans is what those viewers actually saw.
They watched an Eagles team unravel.
The loss to San Francisco didn’t just end the season.
It also exposed the internal dysfunction that followed.
During the first half, FOX captured head coach Nick Sirianni running over to A.J. Brown to scream at him after a pair of drops.
Beyond that, fans watched constant miscommunication, stalled drives, terrible play calling and a roster that looked disconnected
As a result of this, the Eagles fired OC Kevin Patullo on Tuesday after the wild-card loss.
41 million people saw the disaster unfold just one year removed from being Super Bowl champs.
That’s the double-edged sword of being one of the NFL’s biggest draws.
When things go wrong, they do so with the whole world watching.
These record breaking ratings showed that even in defeat and amid chaos, the Eagles command the sport’s largest stage.
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