This year's NFL Super Bowl LV drew 96.4 million total multiplatform viewers on Sunday upon airing on CBS, the lowest figures reported since 2007. The data includes various platforms, including the CBS Television Network, CBS Sports and NFL digital properties, Buccaneers and Chiefs mobile properties, Verizon Media mobile properties, and ESPN Deportes television and digital properties.
With around 91.6 million viewers on CBS alone, the 2021 Super Bowl remains the most-watched televised event of the past year. However, taking an 8% stumble from what Fox had on its broadcast network last year, the 55th Super Bowl distinctly had the smallest network audience since the very different TV era of 2006.
Super Bowl LIV in 2020 had a 41.6 household rating and was watched in an average of 50.2 million homes, 69% of households with functioning TVs. The figures drove the year-ago Super Bowl the 10th most-watched Super Bowl in history, a 1.3% increase from 2019. Shakira and Jennifer Lopez’s 2020 halftime performance averaged 103 million viewers. CBS did not provide a comparable level data will soon be released by Nielsen.
CBS Sports and NFL digital properties, Buccaneers and Chiefs mobile properties, Verizon Media mobile properties, and ESPN Deportes television and digital properties, are the lowest since 2007. They are down around 5% from what last year’s Chiefs win over the San Francisco 49ers pulled in. On the digital curve, Super Bowl LV was the most live-streamed in history, averaging 5.7 million viewers per minute – which is up 69% from 2020’s previous high.