Despite the Super Bowl being a blowout, an average of 126 million U.S. viewers tuned in to see the Philadelphia Eagles thrash the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 on Sunday, according to estimates Monday from Fox Sports.
The game in New Orleans was available for viewing on Fox, Telemundo, Fox Deportes, Tubi and the NFL digital’s channels.
The old record of 123.7 million was set a year ago when the Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime on a game shown by CBS, Nickelodeon, Univision and streaming channels.
Fox projected the peak viewership for Sunday was 135.7 million in the second quarter, from 8-8:15 p.m. ET. By halftime, the Eagles led 24-0 and the competitive portion of the game was essentially over.
Tubi, which made the broadcast available for free, drew 13.6 million viewers, part of a total of 14.5 million people estimated to have streamed the game.
The official ratings for the Super Bowl, calculated by Nielsen, are due to be announced on Tuesday.
The Super Bowl is annually the most watched U.S. telecast of the year. In fact, 19 of the top 20 most-viewed telecasts in national history are Super Bowls, the lone exception being the final episode of the sitcom “M*A*S*H,” which drew 105.9 million viewers in 1983.
Until this year’s official numbers come out, No. 1 on the list is last year’s Super Bowl, and No. 2 is the Super Bowl from February 2023, when 115 million saw the Chiefs edge the Eagles 38-35 in Glendale, Ariz.
–Field Level Media
