With 123m viewers, Super Bowl 2024 is most watched TV show
Super Bowl LVIII marked a turning point in the history of American television on Sunday night. The showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers drew an average of 123.4 million viewers, making it the most-watched television broadcast of all time.
Some 112 million people tuned in to CBS to watch the Super Bowl. According to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, the NFL game averaged 123.4 million viewers.
The remaining viewers were spread across Paramount+, Nickelodeon, Univision, CBS Sports and the NFL’s digital platforms, including NFL+.
The 2023 edition of the Super Bowl, which saw the Kansas City Chiefs go up against the Philadelphia Eagles, held the previous record for mostwatched broadcast.
After an audience correction by Nielsen, the 2023 Super Bowl saw its audience figure rise from 113 million to 115.1 million. The 2024 edition achieved year-on-year growth of seven percent.
While the average audience of 123.4 million is the benchmark used for official records, the total figure of 202.4 million offers a broader perspective of the actual impact of Super Bowl LVIII.
It testifies to the enormous popularity of the event, not only with American football fans, but also with a broader audience interested in spectacle, music and entertainment.
It’s hard to say for sure whether the presence of Taylor Swift directly increased the Super Bowl audience.
However, there’s no denying her relationship with Travis Kelce, tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, generated additional interest, particularly among a younger, female audience who don’t necessarily follow American football.
A study by Numerator even suggests that 20% of Super Bowl viewers supported the Chiefs because of Taylor Swift.
The half-time show, headlined this year by Usher and featuring guest stars such as Ludacris, also captured the attention of many viewers.
Swift was joined in the stands by actress Blake Lively and rapper Ice Spice, while Beyoncé is said to have “broken the internet” with her Verizon ad.