2025 Super Bowl makes TV history with record 127.7 million viewers

The Nielsen ratings service made it official Tuesday. Super Bowl 59 made TV history with 127.7 million viewers, a record high for the third straight year.
It was the highest rated single-network telecast in history, helped in part by Nielsen’s new expanded measuring system.

The game aired on FOX, FOX Deportes and Telemundo and it was streamed on Tubi and other NFL platforms for 3 hours and 34 minutes, officially.
The peak average audience hit 137.7 million from 8 to 8:15 PM eastern time which fell in the second quarter as the Philadelphia Eagles began to extend their lead on the Kansas City Chiefs.
At that point the prevailing sentiment was that the game was nearly over.
Listen to the conversation on the NFL Network Monday morning.

“Having Mahomes running around like he was rattled. And I’m not going to say scared, but certainly not himself. We’ve never seen him like that. The second half there was garbage points and there’s back and forth. The legacy of that game is the first half. It was 24 to nothing and the Chiefs did nothing. I’ll never forget it.”

Imagine the audience had the game been close in the 2nd half!
What’s the reason for those massive numbers? Well part of it is, for the first time, Nielsen measured all households in the contiguous U.S instead of just the top 44 markets. Streaming viewership also hit an all-time high at 13.6 million.

Even the halftime show broke a record Sunday. No matter your opinion of Kendrick Lamar’s performance, it earned an average of 133.5 million viewers, making it the most-watched Super Bowl halftime performance in history.

In total, the Super Bowl audience was up 3.2% from the 2024 game between the Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.
All of which is great news for next year’s Super Bowl broadcaster, NBC.
A :30 second commercial during Sunday’s game sold for a record $8 million per spot and that will likely go even higher after this year’s historic audience.
For Straight Arrow News, I’m Chris Francis.