The Super Bowl scores all-time viewership

The Future. This year’s Super Bowl was the most-watched game ever, thanks to a years-long Chiefs winning streak and the high-profile relationship between Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift. The game has somehow found a wider audience and become a bigger go-to celebrity destination, so expect networks to start marketing the Super Bowl drama off the field just as much as they do on it in an effort to recapture this year’s magic.

Taylor-made
Last Sunday’s game beat more than a few records.

• It had a record viewership of 123.4 million viewers on CBS, Nickelodeon, Univision, and digital platforms like NFL+ — 120 million were on CBS alone. That’s a 7% increase from last year’s record-breaking game.
• That makes Super Bowl LVIII the second most-watched TV program ever, bested only by the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969.
• Additionally, 200 million viewers tuned in for at least part of the game (like Usher’s halftime show) or the fourth quarter — a 10% increase from last year.

This year’s Super Bowl was always going to be huge considering the Kansas City Chiefs also won last year’s record-breaking game. But, of course, there was the TSwift quotient, which had already been juicing game ratings and making headlines all season long.

How much of an impact did she make? Insights firm Numerator found that 20% of Super Bowl viewers cheered on Chiefs because of her relationship with the tight end.