Fox: Super Bowl Viewing Peaks at Nearly 138 Million, a New Record

DeVonta Smith #6 of the Philadelphia Eagles catches a touchdown pass against Jaylen Watson #35 of the Kansas City Chiefs in the second half during Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome on February 9, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
DeVonta Smith of the Philadelphia Eagles scores a touchdown in the second half of the Super Bowl against the Kansas City Chiefs Feb. 9. (Image credit: Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)

(Editor’s note: The numbers quoted by Fox Sports in this story have been updated based on a press release issued at 1:35 p.m. CST.)

NEW ORLEANS—The number of viewers of Sunday’s Super Bowl across Fox, Fox Deportes, Tubi, Telemundo and NFL Digital Properties averaged 127.7 million and peaked in the second quarter at 137.7 million—a record for the game, according to Fox Sports.

Streaming of the game via Tubi and NFL digital properties also set a record, reaching 14.5 million viewers. The average audience watching Tubi was 13.6 million—94% higher than in 2023, the last time Fox televised the Big Game.

AdImpact, drawing on its Advanced TV panel monitoring of 23 million smart TVs, reported peak viewership reached 152.4 million at 8:16 p.m. EST, just before halftime. Average viewership for the game was 137.7 million, breaking previous records, it said.

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Nielsen Super Bowl Audience Data
Super BowlDateNetwork(s)/PlatformTotal Viewers P2+HHLD RatingHHLD Share
LIXFeb. 9, 2025Fox. Tubi, Telemundo, Fox Deportes127,713,00041.783
LVIIIFeb. 11, 2024CBS, Univision, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, Paramount+123,714,00043.583
LVIIFeb. 12, 2023Fox, Fox Deportes115,096,00040.877
LVIFeb. 13, 2022NBC, Telemundo101,470,00037.972
LVFeb. 7, 2021CBS, ESPN Deportes95,877,00038.468
LIVFeb. 2, 2020Fox, Fox Deportes102,086,00042.069

Linear viewing, including those watching via a set-top box, direct cable connection or TV antenna, accounted for 51% of the total. Ten percent of the linear audience watched Fox Deportes. Streaming viewers accounted for 49%—up from 41.5% in 2024. Tubi accounted for 18.7% of the streaming audience, YouTube and YouTube TV, 12.8% and other streaming services 17.4%, Fox said.

Samba TV also reported its findings, showing a slight dropoff in U.S. TV households watching compared to 2024.

Fox reported:

  • 37.1 million U.S. households watched the Super Bowl—5% lower than last year’s game but higher than 2022 and 2023 by 1% to 2%.
  • 28.8 million households watched Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show performance, 4% fewer than watched Usher’s 2024 halftime performance.
  • 311,000 households tuned in to just watch the halftime show, down 8% from last year’s halftime performance.
  • This year’s halftime show marked the viewership high point. Total viewership fell to 70% by the end of the game. In 2024, the game ended with 89% of peak viewership.
  • The Super Bowl audience skewed towards white households (up 5% compared to the U.S. overall). However, among households that only watched the halftime show, Black households were 25% more likely to watch. For the game itself, Black households under-indexed by 6%.
  • Across the top 25 DMAs—with Kansas City included—viewership over-indexed by the highest margin, along with Pittsburgh (+25%), Boston (+14%) and Minneapolis (+13%). Kansas City and Philadelphia over-indexed by +11% and +9%, respectively.

USA Today’s Ad Meter ranked the top 57 Super Bowl commercials. Budweiser’s “First Delivery,” topped the list, followed by Lay’s “The Little Farmer” and “Michelob ULTRA’s “The ULTRA Hustle.”

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Phil Kurz

Phil Kurz is a contributing editor to TV Tech. He has written about TV and video technology for more than 30 years and served as editor of three leading industry magazines. He earned a Bachelor of Journalism and a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism.