Super Bowl LIX was the most-watched in history, despite blowout
Super Bowl LIX was the most-watched in history, despite blowout
Even though the score wasn’t close, Super Bowl LIX’s ratings managed to beat out last year’s record-setting numbers.
Kendrick Lamar may have provided more buzz-worthy content during Super Bowl LIX than the teams on the field did, but that mattered little to audiences in the end. Fox has revealed that its broadcast of the Big Game on Sunday, Feb. 9 broke Super Bowl viewership records yet again, attracting 126 million viewers across platforms. It’s a testament to the power of the NFL, showing that it can bring in the masses for a lopsided game despite linear TV continuing to decline at every turn. The network’s free streaming service Tubi also played a pretty big part in the game’s success.
Key Details:
- Last year’s Super Bowl drew 123.4 million viewers.
- Tubi alone attracted 13.6 million fans.
- Next year’s Super Bowl will stream on NBC and Peacock.
Fox’s projected average audience of 126 million viewers for Super Bowl LIX between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs represents a 2.1% increase over last year’s audience. Super Bowl LVIII between those same Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers brought in 123.4 million viewers.
The broadcast peaked at 135.7 million viewers during the second quarter, as the Eagles were pulling away from the Chiefs. As the game got out of hand for the Chiefs, a dropoff in viewership seems both logical and likely. The game ended with the Eagles winning 40-22, but it wasn’t that close for much of the contest.
A total of 14.5 million viewers streamed the Super Bowl on Tubi, or on NFL digital properties like NFL+. The vast majority of streaming audiences watched the game on Tubi, however, as it brought in 13.6 million of the total on its own.
The data once again demonstrates how deep NFL fandom runs in American audiences, and why streamers like Netflix are willing to shell out tens of millions of dollars to get the rights to just a few games. It’s also a testament to the wisdom of continuing to put big games like the Super Bowl on broadcast channels that reach nearly every household in America, rather than making them streaming exclusives.
Next year’s Super Bowl will be on NBC and Peacock, so the responsibility of continuing to break the previous year’s viewership record will fall to them. NBC might well cross its fingers for a more competitive game on the field, but Fox’s data shows that that is not necessarily a requirement for a record-setting Super Bowl audience.
Tubi
Tubi is a free video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 200,000+ movies and TV episodes - more than any other streaming service. Its ad breaks are shorter and less frequent than most free services. Fox executives have called their service “TV on steroids.”