ESPN didn’t mention the viewership numbers in their press release
ESPN decided to omit the viewership numbers of the matchup between the Chargers and the Cardinals after Monday night. There was another Monday Night Football matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the same night.
The Bucs-Ravens game, which was also hosted by ESPN but was available outside of their paywalled streaming service, boasted a viewership of “more than 16 million.”
According to an article from Pro Football Talk, the viewership for the exclusively streamed game was 1.8 million.
“Nowadays, 1.8 million isn’t a bad number for a sporting event. It’s an awful number for an NFL game. And that’s why ESPN didn’t mention the audience numbers for Chargers-Cardinals,” Florio wrote.
Exclusively-streamed games have not been out of the ordinary for the NFL this year as every Thursday Night Football game is exclusively streamed on Amazon Prime. That being said, Prime is home to what is estimated to be over 200 million subscribers by Statista.com.
ESPN+ only has around 24.9 million subscribers according to Statista.com, many of which are drawn in by bundles that include Disney+ and Hulu.
Prime also offers more outside of exclusively streaming games, while the Disney-owned alternative is only useful for diehard sports fans who want access to more obscure sporting events that typically aren’t on regular television.
The Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Chargers did not put on an enticing performance for average fans
If the NFL wants to entice more casual fans to subscribe to every streaming service necessary so they can watch every single game, defensive slug fests like the one between the Arizona Cardinals and the Los Angeles Charges aren’t going to get the job done.
While Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert did accumulate 349 yards passing, he and every other teammate failed to reach the end zone.
Cardinals QB Kyler Murray was responsible for the game’s only touchdowns, and more plays like his 44-yard run might mean more success for exclusive streaming in the future.
Kyler Murray is so fast he slowed down at the 20 yard linepic.twitter.com/HJVUrFOTcz
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) October 22, 2024
Meanwhile, a shootout between the Ravens and the Bucs resulted in a game with 72 total points, 28 of which came in the fourth quarter. The game wasn’t entirely competitive, but it was entertaining enough for the people who didn’t want to pay to watch the other game.
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