Super Bowl 56 Ratings Soar to 112.3 Million After Last Year’s Decline

Super Bowl 56 on the networks of NBCUniversal bounced back in a big way after last year’s ratings stumble. Sunday’s telecast—in which the Los Angeles Rams held off the Cincinnati Bengals, 23-20, following a late-game comeback—averaged 112.3 million across all linear and streaming platforms, according to Nielsen and NBCUniversal. That’s a 16% increase over last year’s Super Bowl on CBS—featuring the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ lopsided victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, which was seen by 96.4 million people. That game had the lowest linear audience (92 million) since 2006 (seen by 90.7 million) and the smallest overall Super Bowl audience since 2007 (which was watched by 93.2 million). This year's number includes 99.2 million who watched on NBC, another 1.9 million who viewed Telemundo’s first-ever Spanish-language broadcast of the game and 11.2 million on streaming platforms like Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, NFL and Yahoo Sports. During the game, NBC’s viewership peaked at 104.4 million from 7:45-8 p.m. ET. The Super Bowl Halftime Show averaged 103.4 million viewers. How to Make $1.2 Billion in TV Ad Revenue in 19 Days While it is a considerable bounce back from 2021, the number falls short of the pre-pandemic tally for 2020’s game on Fox which drew 113.4 million total viewers, including 100.4 million on linear. The last time NBC aired the Super Bowl, in 2018, the game averaged 118.2 million viewers across all platforms in its Total Audience Delivery metric, including out-of-home viewers. That game's linear audience was 103.4 million. NBC’s 2015 telecast, during which the New England Patriots defeated the Seattle Seahawks, still holds the Super Bowl linear record, averaging 114.4 million total viewers. 4.39 billion household ad impressions Per data from iSpot.tv, the average Super Bowl ad reached 106 million viewers, and the game generated 4.39 billion verified household ad impressions across all platforms in 216 minutes. The game’s 81 national ads accounted for more than 40% of all TV ad impressions on linear TV on Sunday. NBCUniversal is partnering with iSpot.tv on alternative viewing measurement during the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics. According to iSpot.tv, whose metrics differ from Nielsen's, the Super Bowl averaged 121 million viewers, and 149.9 million watched all or some of the broadcast across NBC, Telemundo and Peacock. The total linear average viewership was 98.1 million—95.2 million on NBC, 2.9 million on Telemundo—and the average streaming audience was 10.5 million, and the out-of-home average audience was 12.5 million. After the Super Bowl, NBC opted to air live Winter Olympics coverage instead of an entertainment show. That coverage averaged 24.0 million viewers in NBCU’s Total Audience Delivery metric, which is NBC’s largest Olympics primetime audience since the opening of the 2018 Winter Games. Last year’s post-Super Bowl programming on CBS, The Equalizer, averaged 20.4 million viewers and a 5.1 rating in the adults 18-49 demo. Half a billion in ad revenue NBCU expected to rake in more than a half a billion dollars in ad revenue on what it called Super Gold Sunday—which Dan Lovinger, president, NBC advertising sales and partnerships, told Adweek would be “the largest day in NBCU’s history.” Fueling that record haul, the company sold 30-second Super Bowl spots for as much as $7 million. The Super Bowl ads were not guaranteed, as usual, so NBCUniversal would not have been on the hook for makegoods even if the ratings had fallen below expectations. Between the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics, NBC Sports expects to bring in ad revenue on par with the $1.22 billion it generated in February 2018. Additionally, the company hoped its promos for shows like NBC’s Law & Order revival—which will run not just on Super Bowl Sunday but throughout the Winter Olympics—will help continue the momentum that should put the broadcaster in position to win the season in adults 18-49 for the first time since the 2018-19 season. (Pre-Olympics and Super Bowl, NBC’s 1.2 average has it in second place behind Fox, with a 1.4.) Double-digit NFL ratings increase The big Super Bowl number caps a season of double-digit NFL ratings increases across the board. Regular season games averaged 17.1 million across platforms, 10% more than a year ago. Excluding the Super Bowl, NFL playoff ratings averaged 36.3 million viewers across platforms—up 18% from a year ago—for the most-watched NFL postseason in six years. The NFC and AFC Championship games averaged 49.6 million viewers across platforms, a 10% increase over last year. Last March, the NFL set huge new TV deals with CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN/ABC and Amazon Prime Video, worth an estimated $10 billion annually over the next decade. NBC now passes the Super Bowl baton to Fox, which will air Super Bowl 57 on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023. The company got an early jump on ad sales last September, 18 months before the game. The 10 Best Super Bowl Ads of 2022