Record-breaking Super Bowl reveals the power of Taylor Swift, Patrick Mahomes and Spongebob
A myriad of factors led to Super Bowl LVIII being the most-watched broadcast in U.S. television history.
As expected, Super Bowl LVIII smashed viewership records.
The championship game for the 2023-24 NFL season that saw the Kansas City Chiefs prevail over the San Francisco 49ers in overtime garnered 123.4 million average viewers, according to Nielsen data per a press release by CBS. That's 7% more than the 115.1 million average viewership from last season, which was the record for viewership.
The release also said that 202.4 million viewers watched at least a portion of Super Bowl LVIII which is up 10% from last year.
The numbers take into account all of the broadcasters, including Paramount+, the Spongebob-themed telecast on Nickelodeon, and the Spanish telecast on Univision. CBS reportedly averaged 120.0 million viewers, which it said is the largest audience in television history for a single network.
The number has set a new barometer for the American television viewership chart that is mostly dominated by the Super Bowl, with the 1969 moon landing, (unverified 125 million viewers) and the series finally of M.A.S.H. (106 million estimate viewers) being the lone non-NFL outliers in the top-30.
But there are a few things that are important to note when speaking about the viewership record. First, this number considers volume of viewers, but the actual household rating record — which measures the percentage of households around the country that are tuned into the game — was set at 49.1 in 1982. Household ratings over the last few years have however around 40, while the Tom Brady early-to-mid 2010s mostly saw ratings over 45.
Nielsen has yet to announce the household rating for this year, though more details on the viewership are expected to be announced on Tuesday.
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It's also worth noting that Nielsen only started tracking out-of-home viewing in 2016 and did not count it to the final viewership number until mid-2020 or, for the NFL's purposes, starting the 2021 Super Bowl. Out-of-home viewing is essential to getting the full picture as it takes into account televisions in places like bars, restaurants, hospital waiting rooms, and airports.
Should that have been counted, the 2016 Super Bowl that saw the New England Patriots come back from down 28-3 to defeat the Atlanta Falcons, the only other Super Bowl that went to overtime before this year, would have slightly beat this year's Super Bowl viewership with an average of 126.3 million.
Regardless of all the caveats and official records, Super Bowl LVIII's viewership was massive.
There were signs that it would hit records given that the Divisional Round and Championship Round also saw record-setting numbers. But a season finale that had a close ending with a game winning drive, featured the best player in the game in Mahomes, had the romantic storyline of Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift, and provided alternative broadcasts like Nickelodeon's viral Spongebob telecast certainly gave the final number a bump.
CBS Sports' presentation of Super Bowl LVIII is the most-watched telecast in history with a total audience delivery of 123.4 million average viewers across platforms.
Link to Release: https://t.co/DHc9XPBwSn pic.twitter.com/GR3w2hbBwn— CBS Sports PR (@CBSSportsGang) February 13, 2024
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