FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Last night's primetime matchup on NBC's Sunday Night Football between the Patriots and Seattle Seahawks hauled in the highest ratings for any primetime matchup of the season since Week One. The only higher-rated primetime matchup to date also featured the Patriots in a thrilling 23-21 victory over the Arizona Cardinals in the season opener. Last night's NBC broadcast averaged 22.51 million viewers, making it the most-watched Week 10 NFL primetime game in 18 years (Packers vs. Steelers on November 9, 1998).
Sunday night's broadcast received an impressive 14.3 rating nationally to go along with a market share of 23. Those numbers reflect the highest ratings for a Week 10 Sunday Night Football broadcast since the Patriots defeated the Jets in New York 37-16 in 2011 and are up 13 percent from the 2015 Week 10 matchup (Arizona vs. Seattle). In the local Boston market, NBC's broadcast gathered a 34.9 household rating and a market share of 54.
On Twitter, conversation around the Patriots and Patriots' players helped drive overall volume which reflected in the Nielsen Social Content Ratings. The Patriots were mentioned in 109,000 tweets during last night's matchup, compared to 89,000 for Seattle. Comparatively, last season's Week 10 Sunday Night Football broadcast was led in tweets by the Seahawks with 87,000.
The Patriots return to action next Sunday as they travel across country to make their first appearance at Levi's Stadium to take on the San Francisco 49ers. WBZ will carry the 4:25 p.m. kickoff with Greg Gumbel calling the play-by-play and accompanied by color commentary from Trent Green.
