Everyone wanted to watch Chiefs vs Bengals in AFC Championship

As it turns out, the Chiefs hosting the Bengals was a huge ratings draw—the highest ratings in four years for a conference title game.

As it turns out, a rematch is a bigger draw than the first go-around.

There were a lot of exciting storylines in this year’s AFC Championship game for both the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals, including the fact that both of those teams had just played a year ago for the same stakes—a trip to the Super Bowl. Therefore it made sense that more people would tune in to see the official results the second time around.

On Tuesday it was noted that the broadcast of the AFC Championship on CBS averaged over 53 million viewers. That was up 11 percent over a year ago (a big leap) and was the biggest ratings at this point in the NFL postseason in the last four years.

As the NFL moves from one generation of quarterbacks—led by Tom Brady—to another—led by Patrick Mahomes—it’s clear that the league is in good hands in terms of popularity and rising young stars to carry things forward. Burgeoning rivalries like Bengals vs Chiefs only serve to make fans even more rooted in a particular fan base while rooting for a particular outcome—good news for the league’s future.

The fact that the Chiefs won and will go on to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl is likely very good news knowing that there’s. now a real contest between the two instead of watching Cincinnati win four straight, including two of those games on the biggest stage possible between them, in what is essentially a single calendar year.