Despite the conversation generated around the event, mainly as a result of Bad Bunny’s performance at halftime, this year’s Super Bowl has not surpassed the audience figures obtained in 2025, which became the most viewed edition in history. On this occasion it has achieved an average of almost 125 million viewers, taking second place on the list of Super Bowls with the most television viewers.
As shared by the National Football League (NFL), the average audience for the event, which pitted the Seattle Seahawks against the New England Patriots at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara (California), stood at 124.9 million viewers, accumulated across the channels and platforms NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital and NFL+, according to Nielsen data.
The audience record is maintained by the 2025 Super Bowl, with 127.7 million viewers
The 60th edition of the Super Bowl is the second most watched in history, after the 59th edition, which took place in February 2025 and was broadcast on Fox. That one, which featured rapper Kendrick Lamar in the halftime show, reached 127.7 million viewers.
The one held in 2026 is above the one held in February 2024, and broadcast on CBS, which gathered 123.4 million viewers catapulted by the “Taylor Swift effect.”
However, it has broken a record in terms of audience peaks. And the broadcast reached 137.8 million viewers during the second quarter of the game, when the Seattle Seahawks led 6-0 over the New England Patriots. According to the NFL, this is the highest audience peak in the history of American television.
On the other hand, this Super Bowl has become the most watched program in history on NBCUniversal, which this year celebrates 100 years of the NBC television network. Furthermore, from the media group, February 8 was the “best day” for the Peacock streaming service, both in reach and in hours of content playback.
As might be expected, the broadcast attracted Latin viewers thanks to Bad Bunny’s performance. And Telemundo obtained an average of 3.3 million viewers, which makes this edition the most watched Super Bowl in the history of Spanish-language television in the United States. Telemundo’s viewership peaked during the break, averaging 4.8 million viewers.
Regarding the half-time show, sponsored by Apple Music, the average audience has been 128.2 million viewers between 8:15 and 8:30 in the afternoon, only in the United States. The figure is three million higher than the average audience recorded for the broadcast as a whole. But it would be below what was achieved in last year’s Super Bowl, when Kendrick Lamar’s performance brought together an average of 133.5 million viewers across television and streaming platforms.
Bad Bunny’s performance has also had a significant impact on social networks. As shared by the NFL, referring to figures from Ripple Analytics, the show has reached 4,000 million views in the first 24 hours, including fans, own platforms, influencers, etc.
More than 55% of NFL social media views related to the halftime spectacle came from international markets. What’s more, the three most viewed NFL social media posts in history are clips of the Puerto Rican singer’s performance. The video that captures the closing of the performance, when the message “The only thing more powerful than hate is love” could be read, exceeds 180 million views.
