Now, the Kansas City Chiefs have won two Super Bowls in a row. They’ve not only won another ring but also broken the record for the most watched Super Bowl ever.
123.4 million people watched Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday on CBS, Nickelodeon, Univision, and digital platforms like NFL+. Based on Nielsen data, that represents a 7% increase over Fox’s record-breaking 115.1 million viewers last year.
With 120 million viewers on the broadcast network alone, CBS took the lead and achieved the highest viewership ever for a single network. Over 200 million people watched the game on at least one network, according to Nielsen. Compared to 184M last year, that is a 10% increase.
In addition to being the most watched Super Bowl in history, the 2024 game is currently the second-highest watched TV show ever. The moon landing of Apollo 11 in 1969, which was broadcast on several networks, came in first. This also implies that the Chiefs have participated in and emerged victorious from the two most viewed Super Bowls in history.
Deadline earlier this week forecasted that with the perfect storm brewing with Taylor Swift at its centre, this year’s Super Bowl might break all previous records.
The NFL had already shown improvement in every area throughout the regular season, and things got much better in the postseason. The Chiefs defeated the Baltimore Ravens in January in what was the most viewed AFC Championship Game in history. Whatever the result, this was going to be a highly anticipated game because the Chiefs were playing for their third Super Bowl title in five years.
Naturally, Swift also made it possible for him to go half a world to cheer on Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce on his special day. The pop queen’s influence couldn’t be discounted, as seen by the several events she’s attended that have gone on to set attendance records in the past year. The CBS coverage was very conservative when it came to putting the pop star and her friends on screen throughout the game.
CBS currently owns three of the Top 10 most-watched Super Bowl crowds in history. The other two are Super Bowl XLVII (Baltimore Ravens vs. San Francisco 49ers) and Super Bowl 50 (Denver Broncos vs. Carolina Panthers).