More than two million people watched the NFL on Twitter (again)

Millions of people watched NFL football on Twitter again.

For the second straight week, more than two million people watched part of the NFL’s Thursday Night football game for free on Twitter — this one, a matchup between the New England Patriots and Houston Texans.

Specifically, 2.2 million people watched the game, just a bit more than the 2.1 million who tuned in last week for Twitter's NFL livestreaming debut. Yes, that’s still a much smaller audience than the NFL gets on TV — roughly 17.5 million people saw the game last night on television — but it’s not an insignificant audience, either.

To be clear, that 2.2 million accounts for the total view, or what Nielsen might call the cumulative view, of all the people who tuned in at one point during the game. TV ratings, however, average how many viewers a program had within a specified time frame of about a minute. In this case, that was 327,000 for Twitter, which is up 34 percent from the 243,000 it averaged last week.

Those numbers aren’t bad considering the game was a blowout. The Patriots crushed the Texans, 27-0.

The feeling inside Twitter was that yesterday’s game would generate a bigger audience than last week’s thanks to the popularity of the New England Patriots, one of the league’s most polarizing teams. But the game was all but over midway through the third quarter, so it’s a little surprising the Twitter audience had a bit of a spike over last week.

Twitter’s next streaming game is Oct. 6, when the San Francisco 49ers take on the Arizona Cardinals.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Contributions are a key part of the future of Vox

Readers rely on Vox for clear, nuanced coverage that not only illuminates the issues, but poses solutions, too. And we rely on help from our readers: Advertising and grants cover the majority of our costs, but we count on contributions to help us close the gaps in our budget. In fact, we’re looking to reach 95,000 individual contributions before the end of the year. Will you make the next contribution right now? Our average gift is just $20 — and it goes a long way in helping us keep our work free. Vox is here to help everyone understand what’s shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. Join that mission by making a contribution today.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via