Super Bowl TV ratings: Here's how many people watch the big game each year
The NFL is the king of American sports, and the Super Bowl is its crown jewel. The Big Game has been the most watched television program in the country for years now, and it could break its own record yet again on Sunday, when the Philadelphia Eagles try to thwart the Kansas City Chiefs' bid for a threepeat in New Orleans.
Of course, the Super Bowl has become such a cultural phenomenon for reasons that go well beyond the game itself. It's one of the last great unifiers we have left in an increasingly fragmented society, something that brings together all sorts of people from all walks of life — whether they've come for the football or the halftime show or the celebrity sightings or the commercials or just to try and win their office pool. (That'll certainly be true on Sunday, with Taylor Swift expected to be in attendance to cheer on her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.)
But how did the Big Game come to be just such a big deal, anyway? Let's take a look at the Super Bowl by the numbers.
Super Bowl viewership statistics: By the numbers
Last year's Super Bowl set a new viewership record, with an estimated 120.25 million people tuning in to watch the Chiefs edge the San Francisco 49ers — the biggest Super Bowl audience ever.
Most watched Super Bowls by total viewership
Year | Result | Network | Viewership |
|---|---|---|---|
2024 | Chiefs 25, 49ers 22 (OT) | CBS | 120.25 million |
2015 | Patriots 28, Seahawks 24 | NBC | 114.44 million |
2023 | Chiefs 38, Eagles 35 | FOX | 114.21 million |
2014 | Seahawks 43, Broncos 8 | FOX | 112.19 million |
2016 | Broncos 24, Panthers 10 | CBS | 111.86 million |
In terms of TV viewership, the ratings peaked at some 49.1 percent of households back in 1982. That number has steadily decreased in recent years as more and more people decide to cut the cord and switch to streaming; the NFL claimed that last year's Super Bowl was the most-streamed ever via Paramount+.
Most watched Super Bowls by TV ratings
Year | Result | Network | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
1982 | 49ers 26, Bengals 21 | CBS | 49.1 |
1983 | Redskins 27, Dolphins 17 | NBC | 48.6 |
1986 | Bears 46, Patriots 10 | NBC | 48.3 |
2015 | Patriots 28, Seahawks 24 | NBC | 47.5 |
1978 | Cowboys 27, Broncos 10 | CBS | 47.2 |
Ratings history of the Super Bowl
We've come a long way since Super Bowl I, when 26.75 million people in the U.S. — an estimated 22.6 percent of American households — tuned in to watch Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers rout Hank Stram and the Kansas City Chiefs at the L.A. Coliseum.
After a slight dip for Super Bowl II, the Super Bowl saw a steady growth in ratings into the 1970s. In 1977, however, things really took off, jumping from 62.05 million for Super Bowl XI to 78.94 for Super Bowl XII. Super Bowl viewership first cracked 80 million in 1982, which was also the year that the average cost of a 30-seconds commercial spot first cracked the $1 million mark. 1986 saw the first viewership north of 90 million, a mark the league wouldn't reach again until 1993. Super Bowl XLIV in 2010 was the first to cross the 100 million threshold.
In recent years, the NFL had seen a slight decline in Super Bowl viewership, from 111.32 million in 2017 to 98.48 in 2019. The 2023 Super Bowl between the Eagles and Chiefs saw a renewed surge of interest at 114.21, with last year's Big Game setting a new record.
Global Super Bowl viewership
The Super Bowl remains primarily popular in North America, although as the NFL works to make football a global game, more and more of the world has begun to tune in. According to the league, last year's Super Bowl drew in 62.5 million global viewers, a 10 percent increase from 2023. Most of that was confined to Canada and Mexico, but Germany, Australia and the United Kingdom all saw viewership north of 3 million each.
Who watches the Super Bowl? Audience demographics
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