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CNN
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Super Bowl LVIII became the most-watched television broadcast of this generation.
Sunday’s overtime thriller pitting the Kansas City Chiefs against the San Francisco 49ers averaged 123.4 million viewers, breaking the Super Bowl viewership record, CBS announced Monday.
The much-anticipated showdown in Las Vegas surpassed the previous record as the most-watched Super Bowl in history, when the Chiefs used a second-half comeback to defeat the Philadelphia Eagles in front of 115 million spectators. I just did it. Super Bowl LVIII had a huge crowd; The most-watched television broadcast in history, set in 1969, an estimated 125 million to 150 million viewers watched the Apollo 11 moon landing.
The game was broadcast on CBS and Paramount+ streaming platforms, simulcast in Spanish on Univision, and had a children’s telecast on Nickelodeon.
The record-breaking Super Bowl capped off a strong NFL season. The NFL has already shattered previous viewership records in the weeks leading up to the epic showdown at Allegiant Stadium, with the NFC Championship Game on Fox averaging 56 million viewers and the AFC Championship Game had an average audience of 56 million viewers. CBS averages 55 million.
The large crowds at the Super Bowl were probably due to a combination of several factors. Among them was a thrilling showdown that went into overtime, with the Chiefs scoring the winning touchdown with just seconds remaining. Also in the crowd was pop superstar Taylor Swift, whose ongoing romance with tight end Travis Kelce has sparked interest around the Chiefs. Swift’s games attract large numbers of young, often female, fans, helping the NFL tap into an additional viewer market.
“There’s no doubt that she’s contributing to the NFL viewership,” Bob Bakish, chief executive officer of CBS parent company Paramount Global, told Bloomberg in an interview last week. “She is a great addition and will further widen our net of NFL viewers.”
The league leans heavily on Swift’s presence at games, with broadcasters often panning their television cameras to capture her reaction to the event. The Super Bowl was no exception. During the broadcast, CBS cameras cut to Swift and showed her wearing Chiefs paraphernalia and cheering on Kelce. After the Chiefs clinched the championship, Swift and Kelce hugged on the field and kissed in front of the cameras.
Aside from the Swift element, the NFL remains one of the only co-viewing experiences left in the media landscape as programming continues to fragment across streaming services. The league proved to be one of the only surviving organizations capable of drawing large audiences for live performances.
In fact, NFL games make up the majority of the most-watched television programs each year. In 2023, 93 of his 100 most-watched shows on television were from the NFL.
This makes the NFL and the Super Bowl even more valuable to advertisers looking to reach a mass market. Companies spent about $7 million to secure a 30-second slot in the crucial game.
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