Super Bowl LVI, a 23-20 Rams victory over the Bengals in Los Angeles, was viewed by an average of 112.3 million viewers, a 14 percent increase over last year's game, according to NBC. It's the Super Bowl's best ratings since Patriots-Falcons drew 113 million viewers on average in 2017.
More than 101 million Americans watched Super Bowl LVI on live TV Sunday across NBC and Telemundo, according to preliminary ratings from Nielsen. Across all of NBC's platforms, including its streaming platform Peacock, the game was watched by 112.3 million viewers. It's an improvement from last year's game, which saw ratings drop to a 10-year low.
Cincinnati ranked No. 1 among local market ratings for Super Bowl LVI, coming in at 46.1/84. Not in the top 10 was Los Angeles, which recorded a 36.7/77 local market rating.
This year was the first time Telemundo was able to broadcast the game, making it the first-ever Spanish-language broadcast network to air the Super Bowl. A close game and well-received halftime performance likely helped the viewership numbers climb, as well as a slew of suspenseful playoff games throughout the playoffs. NBC says the halftime show averaged 103.4 million viewers from 8:15-8:30 p.m. ET, up over last year (96.7 million from 8:30-8:45 p.m. ET).
Viewership for the NFL's 2021 regular season was up 10 percent from 2020, the league's highest-rated season average since 2015, per Nielsen.
In 2015, the Seahawks and Patriots saw 114.4 million viewers, which made it the most watched Super Bowl in history.
(Photo: David Crane / MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
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Why Super Bowl ratings rose to highest level since 2017
Bill Shea, sports business writer: The Super Bowl is the biggest American TV audience of the year and has been for decades. Last year’s viewership was down as part of the wider decline in overall primetime viewing – a product of the weird pandemic trend of people watching TV less and the much longer trend of cord-cutting that’s seen more than 30 million U.S. homes drop cable.
Over the past year, we’ve seen a general return of audiences to live sports to pre-pandemic numbers, so it’s zero surprise the Super Bowl saw a rebound. NBC airing the game across Peacock and on Telemundo increased the eyeball count, too. That said, the broadcast’s age 18-49 demographic was 38.45 million, which is better by more than 4 million over last year, but still ranks second lowest in the known Super Bowl history for that metric (based on Sports Media Watch data).
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What to expect for ratings in 2022 regular season
Richard Deitsch, media writer: Is there life beyond earth? Is a hot dog a sandwich? Will NFL viewership go up next season? Such questions have been pondered for years and there is a graveyard of incorrect answers. Here is the reality: The NFL had a great viewership season and benefitted from many factors including a plethora of marketable quarterbacks, great games, an extra week of the season (which keeps more teams in the playoffs), a smartly designed schedule that was front loaded, and crowds back in stadiums. This by no means guarantees an increase off this year. Next year will not have proven ratings draw Tom Brady but quarterbacks such as Joe Burrow and Josh Allen should draw interest beyond their cities. My guess is that the viewership won't drop but whether there will be an increase? Way too many variables at the moment.