FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – In a dominant 24-10 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, the Patriots clinched their 22nd winning season in Robert Kraft's 25 years of ownership, including 18-straight, and now sit just one win away from a 10th-straight AFC East title.
With the victory, the Patriots also delivered their highest rating of the 2018 season, a 39.8 local household rating and 62 market share on WFXT, and finished as the top-rated program of the week. The broadcast peaked at 7 p.m. with a 42.4 rating and 61 share. It was the highest-rated regular season game for the Patriots since a Week 12 matchup with the Jets in 2016.
Additionally, the Patriot's 39.8 rating is the second-highest household rating across all programming in the Boston market since Super Bowl LII on Feb. 4, 2018, which delivered a 55.9 rating and 81 share. The Patriots have also secured seven of the top 10 ratings across all local television programming in the last 10 months since the Super Bowl.
Locally, the game averaged more than 1.5 million viewers and drew a 16 percent year-over-year increase in ratings over 2017's Week 13 game, a 1 p.m. kickoff against the Bills.
Nationally, the FOX broadcast, which reached 90 percent of the country, drew a 15.8 household rating, also marking a 16 percent increase over last year's Week 13 matchup between the Panthers and Saints.
The 9-3 Patriots will travel to Miami to take on the 6-6 Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium this Sunday at 1 p.m. ET with a chance to clinch the division and a playoff berth. The game will be broadcast on CBS (WBZ) at 1 p.m. ET, with Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts calling the game from the booth and Evan Washburn adding analysis from the sidelines.