Super Bowl has 101 million TV viewers, up from 2021 | Agriculture

The scores enchancment for what’s historically the most-watched occasion of the 12 months was no shock, given the run of terrific playoff video games main up to it. Viewership for the NFL’s divisional spherical was up 20% over final 12 months, and the convention championships have been up 10%, Nielsen stated.

Besides the nice video games, a way — or hope — that the coronavirus pandemic could also be winding down may need contributed to the elevated viewers, stated Cole Strain, head of measurement for the analysis agency Samba TV.

“We felt there was a little more freedom,” Strain stated.

The halftime present starring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Mary Ok. Blige was additionally a success, and NBC expressed hope that the sport’s halo will kick-start scores for the in any other case disappointing Winter Olympics in Beijing.

NBC stated one other 11.2 million folks streamed this 12 months’s sport, placing the entire viewers at 112.3 million folks. The viewers for tv and streaming mixed is up 12.6% over final 12 months.

For its hometown Bengals, Cincinnati had the best viewers share within the nation, which means the share of tv viewers watching the sport, Nielsen stated. Los Angeles did not even make the highest 10 markets.

The most-watched Super Bowl ever stays the 2015 sport between New England and Seattle, which had 114.4 million viewers. Last 12 months’s slip gave rise to some considering that the NFL wasn’t resistant to the general drop in viewers that afflicts nearly all tv applications, however this 12 months the NFL defied that gravity.

Live tv viewing within the final three months of 2021 was up over the earlier 12 months, and that may be attributed solely to soccer, Strain stated.

Nielsen estimated that 103.4 million tv viewers watched the Super Bowl halftime present, and Samba’s knowledge illustrated how it’s develop into an occasion in itself. Samba estimated that 379,000 households, or roughly greater than a million folks, tuned in for the halftime present and left after it was executed. Another 1.2 million households, or greater than 3 million folks, tuned in first for the present and stayed for the sport’s second half.

“This year was a very big standout in terms of the halftime show performers versus the last year,” Strain stated. It was the primary time rap artists took middle stage at halftime.

As a end result, Samba stated the 15 most-watched commercials got here both simply earlier than, throughout or simply after the halftime present.

That represents a change from the time advertisers jockeyed to get their advertisements positioned early within the sport or, in the event that they have been feeling fortunate, late within the fourth quarter to make the most of a suspenseful end.

Nielsen stated 21.3 million folks caught round after the sport to observe Olympics programming. NBC particularly requested to broadcast a Super Bowl throughout a Winter Olympics 12 months within the hope that every occasion would profit the opposite, and its executives stated they hoped to take the identical strategy sooner or later.

Late final 12 months, Nielsen adjusted its estimate of viewership for the 2021 Super Bowl from 92 million to 95.2 million, saying it had undercounted the quantity of people that watched the sport exterior of their houses.

This story has been corrected to point out Nielsen revised its viewership rely for final 12 months’s Super Bowl, saying it had undercounted. The streaming rely for this 12 months comes from NBC not Nielsen.