Sunday’s Super Bowl was watched by 123.4 million viewers The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers The nail-biter won 25-22 in overtime, CBS Sports said.
The game aired on CBS, NFL Network, Univision, Paramount+, NFL+ and the Spanish-language streaming service ViX. Kids can also watch an alternate broadcast featuring the characters from “SpongeBob SquarePants” on Nickelodeon.
The 2023 Super Bowl, in which the Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35, held the previous record with more than 115 million total viewers on Fox television networks and digital platforms in addition to the league’s own platforms.
The massive ratings for Sunday’s game were no surprise. Television industry analysts expected the game to be one cultural figureboosted in part by his first-time venue — Las Vegas — and famous suite performances by pop superstar Taylor Swift, who met Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
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The unfinished concert also helped increase interest. Usher hosted the show He was joined at Allegiant Stadium by special guests: Alicia Keys, Jermaine Dupri, HER, will.iam, Lil John, Ludacris and the Jackson State University marching band, Sonic Boom of the South.
The NFL playoffs also drew record-breaking ratings in the run-up to the Super Bowl. The first three weekends of the NFL postseason averaged 38.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen and the NFL’s viewership measurement firm. Associated Press.
An average of 55.47 million viewers tuned in to watch the top-seeded Baltimore Ravens on Jan. 28, according to the AP, setting an AFC playoff attendance record. An average of 56.69 million people tuned in that day to watch the 49ers beat the Detroit Lions, the most-watched NFC game since 2012, according to the AP.
In an age of fractured media consumption and stream-first viewing habits, the NFL is one of the few entertainment enterprises that still has the power to attract large numbers of people to traditional broadcast television. NFL games accounted for 93 of the top 100 broadcast programs last year, according to Nielsen data.
“The Super Bowl is really the ultimate TV experience, immune to the decline in viewership that all other types of programming are experiencing,” Syracuse University television historian Robert Thompson said before Monday’s big conference. the game.
CBS Sports said in a statement about the viewership numbers that the digital broadcast on Paramount+ helped achieve a historic audience for the event. The number of television viewers alone was 120 million.
“More than 200 million viewers (202.4) watched all or part of Super Bowl LVIII across the networks, the highest non-repeat total audience in history and up +10% over last year’s Super Bowl,” the network said.
The numbers had not yet been reported by Nielsen, but CBS said they would on Tuesday.