Super Bowl LVII went down on February 12, 2023. The match between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs saw the latter as the victors. And a near record-setting number of people tuned in to watch the Chiefs win this year’s NFL Super Bowl.
The NFL’s viewership had gone down significantly during the Covid-19 pandemic. It was estimated that only 95.2 million people had watched the 2020 Super Bowl on TV. However, since then, the NFL has managed to rebound in a significant way.
NFL says Super Bowl watched by 113 million viewers https://t.co/E6j4jo5R9v pic.twitter.com/aGMvRNmius
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 14, 2023
Last year’s Super Bowl drew an average audience of 101.1 million television viewers, as estimated by ESPN. The halftime show that year, featuring Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Mary J. Blige drew around 103.4 million viewers. All in all, a combined average of 112.3 million viewers watched the Los Angeles Rams defeat the Cincinnati Bengals with a final score of 23-20.
Super LVII drew an average combined viewership of 113 million people, as reported by the NFL’s official website. Furthermore, the broadcast peaked during Rihanna’s half-time show performance, which she didn’t get paid for, drawing an average of 118.7 million viewers. This year’s Super Bowl once again proved how much of a draw football really is.
This puts Super Bowl LVII in the top 3 most-watched Super Bowls of all time. This year’s show amassed the most viewers since Tom Brady led the New England Patriots to a historic comeback win against the Atlanta Falcons.
FIFA or NFL – which has more viewership?
The NFL has consistently been the most-watched televised sporting event in America for quite some time now. Even the world’s most popular and watched sport, soccer, pales in comparison. But this difference becomes even more jarring when their viewership numbers are compared.
For perspective, the 2018 FIFA World Cup final drew a respectable audience of 11,441,000 viewers. The Super Bowl that year drew nearly 10 times as many viewers with an audience of 103.47 million watching the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Patriots.
2022 World Cup Final was watched by almost 26 million. And people said that soccer wasn't popular 🤣https://t.co/FwvwIeggTk
— World Soccer Talk (@worldsoccertalk) December 20, 2022
The FIFA World Cup 2022 broke many viewership records globally but the NFL managed to retain its stronghold in the US. The WC final on December 18 in Qatar peaked at 25.6 million viewers in the US. This marks a 47% increase in viewers from the previous World Cup final.
Even with such a dramatic increase in viewership, the World Cup cannot compare to the drawing power of Super Bowl LVII. The match between Argentina and France, which saw Lionel Messi lift the WC trophy, drew less than a fifth of the viewers of this year’s Super Bowl. It seems even the greatest player of all time cannot compete with the NFL in the US market.
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