Ticket prices for Sunday's NFC championship game between the Eagles and Washington Commanders entered record-breaking territory on the secondary market this week. And with a Super Bowl berth up for grabs between two division rivals, there could be a strong showing of fans wearing burgundy-and-gold in the stands at Lincoln Financial Field.
About one-third of the title game tickets sold on StubHub were purchased by people in Washington D.C., Maryland or Virginia, according to data shared Thursday by the resale company. Ticket buyers in Pennsylvania also accounted for about one-third of StubHub's ticket sales for the game.
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"Because of the proximity, I don't think that number is out of the norm," StubHub spokesperson Adam Budelli said of the share of Commanders fans buying tickets. "Washington fans sitting at home can decide to purchase tickets Saturday night and still be able to attend the game without any issues."
The platform's average ticket price for Sunday's game stood at $1,259 as of Thursday afternoon, putting it roughly on par with the NFC title game two years ago when the Eagles hosted the San Francisco 49ers. But on other secondary market platforms, tickets to the game have been more expensive.
Victory Live, which processes more than $3.5 billion in annual ticket sales from multiple secondary markets, said Thursday that the Eagles-Commanders game is averaging $1,374 per ticket across its vendor partners. That's the highest average ticket price ever recorded for an NFL game outside of the Super Bowl, the company said.
Victory Live's data shows the average resale price for Sunday's game is up about 16% compared with the NFC title game in 2023. It's about 35% higher than last year's NFC championship game in Santa Clara, California, where the 49ers hosted the Detroit Lions.
In each of the last five years, average ticket prices for the NFC championship game have been higher than prices for the AFC title game. Victory Live's data shows an average price of $742 for Sunday night's game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills at Arrowhead Stadium. On StubHub, the average ticket price for the AFC championship game was $705 as of Thursday afternoon.
Budelli said matchups play a big role in setting prices on the secondary market. With the Chiefs playing in their seventh straight AFC championship game on Sunday, there's a bit less novelty and urgency for fans to brave the cold weather in Kansas City.
"If you've been to two or three straight AFC championship games, there tends to be a softening of the market," Budelli said. "Maybe you're not willing to spend the price you would if you haven't been to one."
Despite the Chiefs' dominant run, Sunday's marquee matchup with the Bills has spurred greater demand for tickets than any of the three previous Chiefs-Bills playoff matchups since 2021. Notably, while Buffalo has one of the best road fanbases in the NFL, only 7% of AFC title game tickets sold on StubHub have been purchased by people in New York and other enclaves for Bills fans.
"It's much harder to get from Buffalo to Kansas City," Budelli said. "When you have a close fanbase (like Washington is to Philly), it certainly tends to be the norm that you'll get a bit higher sales than you would otherwise."
For Eagles fans still weighing their ticket options, StubHub had some seats listed for a little more than $600 as of Thursday evening. Standing-room-only tickets remained available on the platform for about $540. Although the average is above $1,300, fans can still hunt through different sections at the Linc to find the best deals in the stadium.
As for when to buy tickets, Budelli said Philly fans likely learned from the Phillies' 2022 World Series run that waiting until the last minute can be a risky strategy.
"Because these are bucket list types of events and games, it's always hard to predict exactly when to buy," Budelli said. "Sometimes waiting until the day of, ticket prices actually tend to go up because of the amount of demand and excitement and there's not enough tickets for everyone. A lot of times, the best time to buy might actually be (Thursday) or Friday morning before a big amount of fans come in to buy tickets and prices go up as you head toward Sunday."
Washington has not appeared in an NFC championship game since 1992, when the team last advanced to the Super Bowl and defeated the Bills. Since that season, the team has reached the playoffs only seven times. They exceeded expectations this year behind star rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels and first-year head coach Dan Quinn.
The Commanders' turnaround under new owner Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment is even more impressive considering how much fan loyalty had dissipated in Washington's final seasons under former owner Dan Snyder. As recently as 2022, consumer research firm Nielsen found that only 29% of adults in the D.C. TV market called themselves Commanders fans. That was down significantly from 2004, when 51% of adults in the same market said they were fans of the team.
The Eagles and Commanders split their division series 1-1 this season, each earning victories at home.
NBC Sports reported that last week's Eagles-Rams game at the Linc drew the network's fourth-highest TV ratings for an NFL divisional playoff game with an average of 37.9 million viewers. The top-rated game remains the 1994 AFC divisional matchup between the Houston Oilers and Chiefs, when an average of 41.1 million viewers watched Joe Montana (playing his first season in Kansas City) defeated Warren Moon at the Astrodome.
The Eagles-Commanders game on Sunday will be broadcast by FOX, and the Chiefs-Bills game will be on CBS.