How to watch Thursday’s National Football League game on Twitter

Twitter deserves props for closing a live-streaming partnership deal with the NFL.

Twitter’s (NYSE:TWTR) first live stream of an National Football League game has garnered largely positive reviews.

This is the second week of Twitter’s inaugural season livestreaming the NFL’s Thursday night contests. It’s long-awaited premiere was eagerly anticipated, not only among lovers of pro football and cable fee haters but across the sports media industry at large, and offered a first glimpse of how live sport might be presented and consumed – at least in the context of Twitter – in years to come. Viewers can stream the games via Twitter’s website, mobile app, or apps on other platforms that support Twitter.

Per Recode, Twitter drew 2.2 million viewers to its stream of the Patriots blowout win over the Texans, slightly more than the 2.1 million who tuned in to Bills-Jets last week in Twitter’s NFL-airing debut. Some who complained on Sling TV’s Twitter support account received the link to a September 9 blog post that listed which NFL Network games were available and explained pregame and postgame shows would be available.

Generally speaking, the inaugural broadcast went down well, garnering mostly positive reviews among Twitter’s notoriously hard-to-please and always brutally honest user base. Corporate America is well aware of this – before last Thursday’s game, major brands like Anheuser-Busch, Ford, Nestlé, Sony Pictures, and Verizon had signed up to advertise during Twitter’s coverage – and so too is the NFL.

It’s an exaggeration to say that the game was a make-or-break moment for Twitter, but it certainly comes close. In addition to seeing the video on your mobile (or other) device, you’ll also get a stream of tweets from other fans and entities that are commenting on the game.

Business media headlines now know the score: Digital media numbers won’t reach traditional TV numbers. New England’s 27-0 victory over Houston delivered a+14% increase in viewership from last week’s TNF match-up that featured the Jets beating the Bills 37-31.