A record-breaking Super Bowl. The 2024 edition of the National League (NFL) American football championship final attracted 123.4 million people to the screens in the United States – television and streaming platforms combined –, an increase of 7% of the best score achieved last year (115.1 million), according to figures provided Monday February 12 by Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.
The match played Sunday in Las Vegas (Nevada), which saw the second coronation in a row for the Kansas City Chiefs against the San Francisco 49ers (25-22 after overtime), was televised by CBS, Nickelodeon and Univision and broadcast on Paramount + as well as on the NFL’s digital platforms. The broadcast on CBS averaged 120 million viewers, breaking the previous record of 112.34 million for the 2016 game between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers. Univision, for its part, attracted more than 2.2 million viewers on average, the highest audience ever recorded for a Spanish-language network. The Super Bowl has been televised in Spanish in the United States since 2014.
Nielsen also said a record 202.4 million people watched at least part of the game across all networks, an increase of 10% from last year (183.6 million). .
New counting system
This is the second consecutive year that the Super Bowl averages more than 100 million viewers, after a period where four of the five finals before 2023 had not reached this level. In 2021, a year in which the match was played during a pandemic, the Super Bowl between Tampa Bay and Kansas City attracted 95.2 million viewers, the lowest average since 2007.
One reason for the increase seen this year may be the change in counting. Nielsen began including out-of-home viewers in its ratings in 2020, but only in limited markets. This measure was extended to all fifty American states starting this year. Sunday’s Super Bowl was the most in history – the Chiefs scored the decisive touchdown three seconds from the end of overtime – and only the second in 58 editions to go beyond four regulation quarters. The previous extension took place in 2017, when the New England Patriots were crowned against the Atlanta Falcons (34-28).
“I was waiting, but I was hopeful that it would happen”CBS Sports president Sean McManus said of the overtime that finally arrived thanks to a final three-point kick from the Kansas City kicker in the final seconds of the fourth quarter. “I can’t imagine a better or more exciting Super Bowl than this one,” added Sean McManus.
The Taylor Swift effect?
The broadcast of the Super Bowl alternates, depending on the year, between the CBS, Fox, NBC, and ABC-ESPN networks. Next year, the 59e edition will be televised by Fox which until then held the record established last year by the poster between the Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Sunday’s Super Bowl, whose halftime musical show was provided by R’n’B singer Usher, was marked by the presence of Taylor Swift in the stands. The pop superstar is dating Chiefs wide receiver Travis Kelce, a romance that has brought new fans to the NFL, many of them women.
This increase in attendance confirms an increase observed during the year. The regular season thus attracted an average of 17.9 million viewers, the second highest figure since audiences were calculated in 1995. And the playoffs (the playoffs) brought together an average of 38.5 million viewers. over the three weekends in January, an increase of 9% compared to last year.
After this fourth coronation for the Chiefs – the third in only five seasons – the NFL is taking a break until next September. But the most popular professional sports league in the United States hopes to continue this progression.