Ravens' Win vs. 49ers Draws 27.2M Viewers; 2nd Most Watched MNF Game Since 1996

The Christmas edition of Monday Night Football provided a marquee matchup and it appears the fans tuned in across the nation.

Adam Schefter of ESPN reported that an audience of 27,235,000 people tuned into the matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers. This was the second most-watched Monday Night Football game in 27 years, with Week 11's matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs being the only to eclipse it.

This means that the two most-watched MNF games in nearly three decades occurred within weeks of each other.

The Eagles-Chiefs matchup was notably a rematch of the previous Super Bowl, this game was also a rematch of a Super Bowl from recent history as it pitted the Super Bowl XLVII contestants against eachother.

Much like that Super Bowl, the Baltimore faithful left this game much happier than the 49ers. Baltimore cruised to a 33-19 victory, taking a giant step forward towards securing the No. 1 seed in the AFC at 12-3. San Francisco fell to 11-4 with the loss and will need to outperform the Philadelphia Eagles, Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys in the final weeks in order to secure the coveted bye.

Two of those aforementioned teams will square off in the game next week and try to usurp Monday's totals. The Cowboys will host the Lions in that matchup in what will be the final MNF contest of the regular season.