Sunday night's Super Bowl, featuring a performance by Bad Bunny, failed to break US television audience records, though it set new highs on social media. The Seattle Seahawks' 29-13 victory over the New England Patriots averaged 124.9 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL+, according to Nielsen. This fell short of the 127.7 million who watched last year's game on Fox.
Bad Bunny's half-time show drew an average of 128.2 million viewers, making it the fourth-most watched in Super Bowl history, behind Kendrick Lamar (133.5 million in 2025), Michael Jackson (133.4 million in 1993), and Usher (129.3 million in 2024). Despite missing the top spot, the show set a social media record with 4 billion views within 24 hours, a 137% increase over last year, according to the NFL and Ripple Analytics.
The game itself set a record for peak viewership, with 137.8 million viewers during the second quarter, surpassing last year's peak of 137.7 million. This marks the fifth consecutive year the Super Bowl has averaged over 100 million viewers. However, the overall audience decline ended a streak of four years of increases, possibly due to the one-sided nature of the game, which saw no touchdowns in the first three quarters.
In Spanish-language broadcasting, Telemundo averaged 3.3 million viewers, the highest for a Super Bowl in the US, with a peak of 4.8 million during the half-time show. The NFL noted that over 55% of social media views for Bad Bunny's performance came from international markets. Full global viewership figures are expected next week.
