By Nick Grunewald, WC Sports Editor
The Feb. 11 Super Bowl in Las Vegas between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers shattered television records bringing in 123.7 million viewers – the highest number of people to watch the same broadcast in the history of television, according to Nielsen. This eclipsed the previous record by nearly eight millions viewers – Super Bowl 57 between the Philadelphia Eagles and Chiefs which had 115.1 million viewers.
CBS was the main beneficiary as they saw 112 million viewers tune into their broadcast – the largest audience ever for a television network. The remaining were split across Paramount+, CBS Sports, Nickelodeon, and Univision.
The record breaking Super Bowl was the conclusion to a strong season for the NFL, which had already set new viewership records in the weeks leading up to the big finale at Allegiant Stadium.
According to the league and Nielsen, the first three weekends of the postseason averaged 38.5 million viewers on television and digital platforms, a 9% increase over last year.
The NFC Championship game on Fox between the 49ers and Detroit Lions averaged 56.69 millions viewers – the most watched NFC championship game since 2012. The Baltimore Ravens vs. Chiefs AFC championship game averaged 55.47 million viewers on CBS making it the most watched AFC championship game ever.
Each year NFL games make up a vast majority of the most-watched television programs. In 2023, 93 of the 100 most-watched programs on television belonged to the NFL, according to CNN.
The NFL continues to demonstrate that they are King, and that’s not slowing down anytime soon.
