Super Bowl averages 124.9M viewers, Bad Bunny's halftime 128.2M, both short of records
Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald looks at the Lombardi trophy as confetti rains down after the Seahawks won over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 60. Credit: AP/Jennifer Buchanan
The ratings for Sunday’s Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl are in, and they provide good news and bad news for the NFL and NBC.
It all depends on how you look at the numbers.
The good news: Seattle’s 29-13 victory on NBC, Telemundo and Peacock drew an average of 124.9 million viewers. That made it the second most-watched Super Bowl in history after last year’s Philadelphia blowout victory over Kansas City on FOX.
Last year’s game drew an average of 127.7 million viewers. So this year’s Super Bowl had a decrease of 2.2%.
The last time Super Bowl ratings went down instead of up from one year to the next was Super Bowl LV between Kansas City and Tampa Bay in 2021. Ratings had gone up every year since until this one.
Still, NBC had a lot to crow about when it announced the ratings on Tuesday night. Even with a slight decrease in average ratings, NBC reported that the game was watched by 137.8 million viewers at its peak in the second quarter, when Seattle was leading 6-0 in a game that didn’t see a touchdown until the fourth quarter. That’s the highest peak viewership in U.S. television history, according to NBC.
“The Super Bowl and the NFL once again delivered a blockbuster audience across the NBC broadcast network, Peacock, and Telemundo, and provided an unprecedented lead-in to our Primetime in Milan (Olympics) coverage,” said NBC Sports president Rick Cordella. “The Super Bowl and the Olympics are the two most powerful events in the world, and we salute our talented production, tech, and announce teams who delivered best-in-class presentations for our viewers, stations, and partners.”
The halftime show featuring Puerto Rican Grammy-winning artist Bad Bunny averaged 128.2 million viewers from 8:15-8:30 p.m. Eastern. That would make it the fourth-most watched halftime in U.S. markets behind Kendrick Lamar (133.5 million, 2025), Michael Jackson (133.4 million, 1993) and Usher (129.3 million, 2024).
The NFL was banking on Bad Bunny also drawing a huge global audience. Those numbers won’t be out until next week.
An alternate “All-American Halftime Show” on various networks and platforms staged at the same time by Turning Point USA and featuring Kid Rock drew 6.1 million views on YouTube during NBC’s halftime show, according to the Athletic, and had more than 21 million views as of Tuesday night, according to YouTube.
— With the Associated Press
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
