Super Bowl ratings dating back to the very first game in 1967.
The Super Bowl ratings record remains a 49.1 for 49ers-Bengals in 1982, but the viewership record was set just this year (2024) — 123.7 million for Chiefs-49ers. While Chiefs-49ers owns the largest official Super Bowl audience on record, that is only because Nielsen did not begin including out-of-home viewing in its viewership estimates until mid-2020.
From 2017-20, Nielsen measured out-of-home viewing separately. Adding in the out-of-home audience during those years, Patriots-Falcons in 2017 is the most-watched Super Bowl on record with 123.94 million, followed by this year’s game and Eagles-Patriots in 2018 (117.33M).
Nielsen did not track out-of-home viewing at all until 2016, meaning that any number of games in prior years may well have averaged a larger audience all things being equal. In particular, Patriots-Seahawks in 2015 — which averaged 114.44 million — would likely rank at or near the top had out-of-home viewing been measured then.
It should be noted that simply removing out-of-home viewing from the equation does not give you an apples-to-apples comparison to the pre-out-of-home era. Nielsen reclassified guest viewing as out-of-home starting in 2020, meaning that a solid chunk of the out-of-home audience consists of viewership that was already being tracked in prior years. Thus removing out-of-home viewing from the equation puts this year’s games at a disadvantage compared to those of the past.
Super Bowl ratings and viewership, all-time
As of 2021, out-of-home viewing is now included in traditional Nielsen-reported audience.
* NBC’s 2022 streaming audience was 11.2 million viewers across 6.0 million devices.
Similar data in text form:
* From 2021 and onward, all out-of-home viewing is included in the official Nielsen estimates. From 2017-20, only part of the out-of-home audience — guest viewership in panelists homes — is included.
Year | Game | Margin | Net | Overall | A18-49 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Main Rtg | Main Vwrs | Strm | Alt Cast | OOH | Rtg | Vwrs | ||||
2024 | KC-SF | KC +6 (OT) | CBS | 42.1 | 120.3M | — | 3.46M | tbd | 36.0 | 47.47M |
2023 | KC-PHI | KC +3 | FOX | 40.4 | 114.21M | — | 882K | 25.00M | 34.7 | 45.31M |
2022 | LAR-CIN | LAR +3 | NBC | 36.9 | 99.18M | 6.0M (11.2M*) |
1.9M | 21.75M | 29.5 | 38.45M |
2021 | TB-KC | TB +22 | CBS | 38.2 | 95.21M | 5.7M | 647K | 15.39M | 26.5 | 34.28M |
2020 | KC-SF | KC +11 | FOX | 41.6 | 101.32M | 3.4M | 757K | 23.51M | 29.9 | 38.67M |
2019 | NE-LAR | NE +10 | CBS | 41.1 | 98.48M | 2.6M | 473K | 23.33M | 31.0 | 39.95M |
2018 | PHI-NE | PHI +8 | NBC | 43.1 | 103.47M | 2.02M | 543K | 25.05M | 33.4 | 43.00M |
2017 | NE-ATL | NE +6 (OT) | FOX | 45.3 | 111.32M | 1.72M | 650K | 26.58M | 37.1 | 47.62M |
2016 | DEN-CAR | DEN +14 | CBS | 46.6 | 111.86M | 1.40M | 472K | — | 37.7 | 47.86M |
2015 | NE-SEA | NE +4 | NBC | 47.5 | 114.44M | 973K | 368K | — | 39.1 | 49.71M |
2014 | SEA-DEN | SEA +35 | FOX | 46.7 | 112.19M | 531K | 561K | — | 39.3 | 49.87M |
2013 | BAL-SF | BAL +3 | CBS | 46.4 | 108.69M | 508K | — | — | 39.7 | 50.22M |
2012 | NYG-NE | NYG +4 | NBC | 47.0 | 111.35M | 346K | — | — | 40.5 | 51.84M |
2011 | GB-PIT | GB +6 | FOX | 46.0 | 111.01M | — | — | — | 39.9 | 52.48M |
2010 | NO-IND | NO +14 | CBS | 45.0 | 106.48M | — | — | — | 38.6 | 50.82M |
2009 | PIT-ARIZ | PIT +4 | NBC |
42.0
|
98.73M | — | — | — | 36.7 | 48.45M |
2008 | NYG-NE | NYG +3 | FOX |
43.1
|
97.45M | — | — | — | 37.5 | 49.19M |
2007 | IND-CHI | IND +12 | CBS |
42.6
|
93.18M | — | — | — | 35.2 | n.a. |
2006 | PIT-SEA | PIT +11 | ABC |
41.6
|
90.75M | — | — | — | 34.6 | 45.01M |
2005 | NE-PHI | NE +3 | FOX |
41.1
|
86.07M | — | — | — | 33.2 | 43.14M |
2004 | NE-CAR | NE +3 | CBS |
41.4
|
89.80M | — | — | — | 35.7 | 46.00M |
2003 | TB-OAK | TB +27 | ABC |
40.7
|
88.64M | — | — | — | 36.4 | 46.86M |
2002 | NE-STL | NE +3 | FOX |
40.4
|
86.80M | — | — | — | 34.7 | n.a. |
2001 | BAL-NYG | BAL +27 | CBS |
40.4
|
84.34M | — | — | — | 35.8 | n.a. |
2000 | STL-TEN | STL +7 | ABC |
43.3
|
88.47M | — | — | — | 37.9 | n.a. |
1999 | DEN-ATL | DEN +15 | FOX |
40.2
|
83.72M | — | — | — | 36.4 | n.a. |
1998 | DEN-GB | DEN +7 | NBC |
44.5
|
90.00M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1997 | GB-NE | GB +14 | FOX |
43.3
|
87.87M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1996 | DAL-PIT | DAL +10 | NBC |
46.0
|
94.08M | — | — | — | 41.2 | n.a. |
1995 | SF-SD | SF +23 | ABC |
41.3
|
83.42M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1994 | DAL-BUF | DAL +17 | NBC |
45.5
|
90.00M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1993 | DAL-BUF | DAL +35 | NBC |
45.1
|
90.99M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1992 | WSH-BUF | WSH +13 | CBS |
40.3
|
79.59M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1991 | NYG-BUF | NYG +1 | ABC |
41.9
|
79.51M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1990 | SF-DEN | SF +45 | CBS |
39.0
|
73.85M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1989 | SF-CIN | SF +4 | NBC |
43.5
|
81.59M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1988 | WSH-DEN | WSH +32 | ABC |
41.9
|
80.14M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1987 | NYG-DEN | NYG +19 | CBS |
45.8
|
87.19M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1986 | CHI-NE | CHI +36 | NBC |
48.3
|
92.57M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1985 | SF-MIA | SF +22 | ABC |
46.4
|
85.53M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1984 | LA Raiders-WSH | LA +29 | CBS |
46.4
|
77.62M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1983 | WSH-MIA | WSH +10 | NBC |
48.6
|
81.77M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1982 | SF-CIN | SF +5 | CBS |
49.1
|
85.24M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1981 | OAK-PHI | OAK +17 | NBC |
44.4
|
68.29M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1980 | PIT-LA Rams | PIT +12 | CBS |
46.3
|
76.24M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1979 | PIT-DAL | PIT +4 | NBC |
47.1
|
74.74M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1978 | DAL-DEN | DAL +17 | CBS |
47.2
|
78.94M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1977 | OAK-MIN | OAK +18 | NBC |
44.4
|
62.05M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1976 | PIT-DAL | PIT +4 | CBS |
42.3
|
57.71M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1975 | PIT-MIN | PIT +10 | NBC |
42.4
|
56.05M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1974 | MIA-MIN | MIA +17 | CBS |
41.6
|
51.70M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1973 | MIA-WSH | MIA +7 | NBC |
42.7
|
53.32M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1972 | DAL-MIA | DAL +21 | CBS |
44.2
|
56.64M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1971 | BAL (Colts)-DAL | BAL +3 | NBC |
39.9
|
46.04M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1970 | KC-MIN | KC +16 | CBS |
39.4
|
44.27M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1969 | NYJ-BAL (Colts) | NYJ +9 | NBC |
36.0
|
41.66M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1968 | GB-OAK | GB +19 | CBS |
36.8
|
39.12M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
1967 | GB-KC | GB +25 | CBS |
22.6
|
26.75M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
NBC |
18.5
|
24.43M | — | — | — | n.a. | n.a. |
Why is there no non-Nielsen streaming listed for 2023?
The FOX streaming audience (7.0M) was tracked by Nielsen.
I’m looking forward to seeing the update for 2024!
The trend is what the executives are watching and they are very nervous!!! Expect advertising rates to drop 20% next year which equates to a multi- million dollar loss for the network’s next year and payments to the clubs will shrink also!!!
Super Bowl ads went for as much as $7M per 30 seconds this year, a new record. Nobody — not a soul on this Earth, or on any planet in the solar system — is losing money on the Super Bowl. Unless they bet on the Lions to get there.
I’m comfortable guaranteeing that not a single executive in this industry is “very nervous” about the Super Bowl. I’m comfortable guaranteeing that Super Bowl ad rates will not drop 20% in a single year for the foreseeable future. I’m comfortable guaranteeing that none of the networks will suffer a multi-million dollar loss on the Super Bowl for the foreseeable future. The scenario you are outlining is fantastical.
Is it possible to see viewership numbers for local markets like KC? How did they do for LV over LIV?
KC was the top market for Super Bowl LV at a 59.9 rating, up from the Chiefs’ win the previous year (55.7): https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2021/02/local-super-bowl-ratings-boston-kansas-city-tampa/
Thanks, but that’s not exactly what I was looking for. I am looking for the audience size in KC in both years because I wanted to calculate the number of viewers per television [audience / (TV households X Rating) ]. I tried tweeting at you about my own blog doing just this with national numbers: https://www.sportsandecon.com/
Streaming accounted for 2.6% of the in-home viewing for this year’s Super Bowl, up from 1.5% just two years ago.
I’m predicting 112 million viewers will watch the game