The Super Bowl between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals drew a a total audience of 112 million viewers, up roughly 14% from last year, according to Nielsen and NBCUniversal.
The ratings rebounded from last year’s 15-year-low on CBS.
Viewers of this year’s NBC broadcast drew 99.2 million viewers, about two million people watched the game on Telemundo, and 11.2 million watched on the Comcast
CMCSA,
streaming platform Peacock.
The uptick in NFL viewership comes after a season of ratings increases for the league’s regular season — the NFL’s regular season saw a 10% ratings increase year-over-year.
The Rams and Bengals played in a competitive, close game, likely contributing to increased interest in the Super Bowl. Close games on average typically lead to better ratings, according to Sports Business Journal.
Analysts estimated that a record-setting total of $7.61 billion was set to be wagered on the Super Bowl this year.
The most watched Super Bowl ever was in 2015 when the New England Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks, drawing 114.4 million viewers, according to data from the NFL.
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Digital viewers of this year’s game, in this instance on the Peacock streaming app, were roughly double the amount of digital-only viewers from last year’s Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The NFL in 2021 signed a $110 billion media rights deal with CBS, ESPN/ABC, FOX, NBC and Amazon
AMZN,
to continue to broadcast NFL games — Amazon is now the exclusive broadcaster of Thursday Night Football.
The news comes as ratings for the 2022 Beijing Olympics have dropped to historic lows.
This post was originally published on Market Watch
