TV Ratings: Super Bowl Attracted 127M Viewers

UPDATE: 3PM TUESDAY:  Final Figures from Nielsen were released Tuesday. According to Nielsen, 127.7 million viewers sets a new audience record for the Super Bowl, exceeding the 123.7 million viewers brought in by last year’s Super Bowl, which, at the time, drew the event’s biggest audience in history.  The Super Bowl peaked with 137.7 million viewers from 8:00-8:15 p.m. ET in the second quarter, and Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show set a new record as most-watched Super Bowl halftime performance in history with an audience of 133.5 million viewers.

Earlier story...

Super Bowl LIX, where the Philadelphia Eagles triumphed over the Kansas City Chiefs, pulled in an estimated 126 million viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes, Tubi, Telemundo, and NFL digital platforms, based on Nielsen’s preliminary data and Tubi/NFL analytics. 

This marks a new viewership record, topping last year’s 123.7 million, which was previously the highest in the event’s history. 

Final numbers are expected Tuesday.

Viewership peaked at 135.7 million during the second quarter between 8:00-8:15 p.m. ET. Streaming also hit new highs, with Tubi and NFL digital properties drawing 14.5 million viewers—13.6 million of them on Tubi alone. By comparison, last year’s Super Bowl LVIII, broadcast across CBS, Paramount+, and other platforms, saw a 7.47% jump from 2023’s 115.1 million viewers.

Fox also says the game set a Super Bowl streaming record with 13.6 million viewers on its free streaming platform, Tubi, and 14.5 million including NFL digital platforms. The previous streaming high was about 11.2 million viewers in 2022.

The lopsided nature of the game seemingly had no effect on the TV audience. The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 40-22, in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score suggests: The Eagles’ lead was 34-0 late in the third quarter, and 40-6 before a pair of Kansas City touchdowns in the final three minutes of the game.

Taylor Swift, attending to support Travis Kelce, faced boos from the crowd when shown on the jumbotron, though she brushed it off. The halftime show, headlined by Kendrick Lamar, stole the spotlight, featuring surprise guests Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as Uncle Sam, and Serena Williams. Lamar performed alongside SZA for their hits “Luther” and “All the Stars,” before closing with his Drake diss track, “Not Like Us.”