New York, Sep 17 (IANS): Over two million people live streamed NFL's Thursday Night Football on Twitter, compared to 48 million who watched it on TV.

"For the Thursday Night Football game alone, Twitter reached 2.1 million viewers," NFL said in a statment on Friday. 

More specifically, an average of 243,000 people were watching the game on Twitter at any given time, while CBS and the NFL network, which broadcast the game, reached an average of 15.4 million.

"The average audience watching Thursday Night Football on Twitter properties was 243,000 with each viewer watching an average of 22 minutes of game action," the statement added.

The 2016 season kickoff of Thursday Night Football between the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills was seen on an average minute audience basis by 15.7 million viewers across all platforms, includin CBS Television Network, NFL Network, Twitter, NFL Digital, and CBS Interactive, NFL said.

The numbers also made an impact on Twitter's shares as the company's stock went up more than four per cent on Friday after the first game was live streamed through the social network, CNBC reported.

Thursday's game was the first of 10 games Twitter is set to stream for free over the next three months.