LOS ANGELES—NBC Sports’ coverage of Super Bowl LVI averaged a total audience delivery of 112.3 million viewers on NBC, Telemundo, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, NFL Digital platforms and Yahoo Sports mobile properties, reaching a total of 167 million viewers, in what NBCU is calling the most watched show in five years.
About 101.1 million TV viewers watched the Super Bowl across NBC and Telemundo. Led by Peacock, Super Bowl LVI was the most-streamed NFL game ever, with an average minute audience of 11.2 Million viewers across all digital platforms. Telemundo also delivered the largest Spanish-language NFL game audience ever, NBCU reported.
“The Super Bowl once again delivered a massive audience, which included NBC and the unmatched power of broadcast television as well as first-ever presentations on Peacock and Telemundo, and led into our most-watched Olympics coverage in four years,” said Mark Lazarus, chairman, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming.
Super Bowl LVI viewership on NBC peaked at 104.4 million from 7:45-8:00 p.m. ET.
The game (6:35-10:09 p.m. ET) averaged 99.2 million viewers on NBC – topping by 4% last year’s game (95.2 million for Chiefs-Buccaneers).
The Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show on NBC, starring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar, along with special guest 50 Cent, averaged 103.4 million viewers from 8:15-8:30 p.m. ET – topping last year’s halftime show by 7% (96.7 million from 8:30-8:45 p.m. ET).
Telemundo on Sunday became the first-ever Spanish-language broadcast network to air the Super Bowl and averaged 1.9 million viewers – by far the most-watched NFL game in U.S. Spanish-language history.
Data from other measurement companies also showed large audiences.
iSpot.TV, a measurement company being used as an alternative to Nielsen by NBCUniversal, reported that an average minute audience of 121 million viewers tuned in to watch on NBC, Telemundo and Peacock, in homes and public venues across America.
About 56% of U.S. Households tuned into the telecast on NBC, Telemundo and Peacock, reaching a total audience of 149.9 million people who watched all or some of the broadcast, iSpot.TV said.
The total linear average minute viewership was 98.1 million, including 2.9 million average minute viewers on Telemundo, which contributed to a total in-home reach of 134.5 million people on NBCU networks.
The average streaming minute audience was 10.5 million viewers and 15.5 million total viewers, which includes sensor-level streaming viewership data from CTV, mobile and tablet consumption provided in partnership with Conviva.
The iSpot.TV report found that 70.1% of those streaming the Super Bowl came from “cord cutters” or households without bundled pay TV service.
The total Out-of-Home (OOH) average audience for the Super Bowl was 12.5 million, as measured via iSpot’s partnership with Tunity Analytics.
Separately, Samba TV released U.S. linear television and streaming viewership data from Sunday night’s Super Bowl that showed this year’s championship game scored significant viewership increases from 2021, with 36 million U.S. households, representing more than 1 in 4 US homes, watching the Super Bowl this year.
That was a significant audience uptick for the NFL, with Super Bowl LVI drawing in viewership from 12% more households than last year’s game, Samba TV reported.
The Samba TV data also showed that the halftime show was a big audience draw this year smashing 2021’s viewership numbers. About 29 million U.S. households, an increase of 19% year-over-year, viewed the halftime performances.
International data was not yet available but in Canada, Numeris reported that the Los Angeles Rams' hometown victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI was the most-watched broadcast in Canada since last year's Super Bowl, attracting an average audience of 8.1 million viewers on CTV, TSN, and RDS, according to preliminary data from Numeris.
Overall, 16.9 million unique Canadian viewers, or 45% of Canada's population, tuned in to watch the NFL's championship game, meaning nearly 1 in 2 Canadians watched some or all of the broadcast. Audiences peaked at 11.4 million viewers at 8:21 p.m. ET during the celebratory Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show, headlined by Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, and Kendrick Lamar, with a special guest appearance by 50 Cent.
It was also Canada's most-watched broadcast of the 2021/22 broadcast season. The game ranked as the #1 program of the day, and CTV was the most-watched network in Canada on Sunday.
Bell Media's CTV, TSN, and RDS are the official broadcasters of the NFL in Canada.
Bell Media also reported that extensive Super Bowl content drove engagement across TSN's social media platforms, garnering 5.5 million views, with 3 million of those views coming on TikTok.
