Super Bowl LVIII was the most-watched program in television history, with 123.4 million viewers tuning in across all platforms to watch the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers 25–22 in overtime, CBS Sports said in a statement.
The big game aired on CBS, the NFL Network, Univision, Paramount+, NFL+ and Spanish-language streamer ViX, along with a kid-friendly alternative broadcast on Nickelodeon. The audience of 123.4 million was up from 115.1 million for last year’s Super Bowl.
Viewership on CBS amounted to 120 million, the largest audience in history for a single network, according to CBS Sports. Paramount Plus also saw a record-setting streaming audience.
CBS Sports said overall, 202.4 million viewers watched at least part of the broadcast, a 10% increase over last year’s Super Bowl, which saw 184 million viewers, based on preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research and Adobe Analytics. Final Nielsen data was expected Tuesday.
The audience was expected to be big, with sideline stories including the romance between Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and pop star Taylor Swift, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes winning his third Super Bowl MVP at just 28 years old, and a star-studded halftime show headlined by Usher.
The second half of the game also stretched into a nail-biting overtime period that kept viewers tuned in to the very last minute.
CBS Sports said the Super Bowl ended a record-setting NFL season, which was the most-watched regular season since the NFL returned to CBS in 1998. The NFL playoffs also earned record ratings, with the first three postseason games averaging 38.5 million viewers. When the Chiefs beat the Baltimore Ravens, 55.47 million viewers tuned in, while on the same day, 56.69 million watched the 49ers beat the Detroit Lions.
Story via TMX