The Super Bowl had a little bit of everything Sunday night: a close game that went down to the wire, an exciting halftime show starring some of hip hop’s greatest artists and a Los Angeles venue that added a Hollywood vibe. All of that led to big ratings for the NFL and NBC.
Super Bowl LVI averaged 112.3 million viewers across TV and streaming, according to NBC. That number was up from last year’s Super Bowl, which averaged roughly 96.4 million viewers across CBS and streaming.
It’s a fitting end to a season of viewership resurgence, with ratings for the regular season up roughly 10% overall from last year at 17.1 million viewers per game on average.
On Sunday night the Los Angeles Rams and quarterback Matthew Stafford narrowly beat the Cincinnati Bengals and quarterback Joe Burrow, with a final score of 23-20.
The close game likely boosted viewership: The Rams took the lead and stopped the Bengals comeback in the final minutes of the game, which was competitive throughout compared to last year’s blowout. In 2021 the Tampa Bay Buccaneers easily beat the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9.
The halftime show also made waves with rappers Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar performing some of the most recognizable hip-hop songs of recent decades.
And as always, some viewers surely tuned in just to watch the commercials. This year in particular, many ads stood out, — including a Sopranos reunion for Chevy and a strange Coinbase QR-code commercial that briefly crashed the app.
That’s good news for the companies making the ad buys, as the attention came at a hefty price: Several 30-second spots sold for a record $7 million each.
