Twitter video streamed Thursday night football games during this playing season and gleaned a high number of viewers overall. During 10 NFL games the viewership numbers averaged 265,800 per minute. Approximately, 2.7 million viewed the game three seconds or more every week.
Between 209,000 (Week 11) and 327, 000 (Week 3) viewed the Thursday night football games last year streamed through Twitter in 2016.
The average audience numbers sloped downward from the start of the season; the number of three-second views inclined upward.
The minute-audience averaged about 10 percent of the total viewership (about 265,800 average viewers) but also showed a decline from the season’s start until the end of the first ten games. The numbers fluctuated as the season progressed, which also roughly coincides with television viewership.
Of the overall digital audience viewing the games, Twitter held the lead at 74 percent overall with an average of 172,400 per game more viewers than non-Twitter streamers.
Random variables that might have affected the digital viewership numbers include the game lineups. Twelve of the 20 teams have a high popularity. However, half of the twenty entered the season with losing records; in three of the games, both teams had a losing record. The latter condition does not encourage viewership.
In Week 11 the overall digital audience showed an 81 percent increase, which is representative of NBC’s digital streaming numbers. How much NBC’s digital viewership affected Twitter’s is and unknown variable. On average, the fluctuation in numbers between the two largely coincided from game to game.
