Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers Sunday night came down to the wire. Patrick Mahomes hit Mecole Hardman on a three-yard touchdown pass in overtime to walk it off and lead Kansas City to back-to-back Super Bowl titles.
In what can’t be considered too much of a surprise, the game itself set a record. According to CBS Sports, an average of 123.4 million viewers tuned into the game, making it the most-watched television broadcast in history.
“CBS Sports’ coverage of SUPER BOWL LVIII, which featured the Kansas City Chiefs’ 25-22 overtime victory over the San Francisco 49ers, delivered the most-watched telecast in history with a Total Audience Delivery of 123.4 million average viewers across all platforms, including the CBS Television Network, Paramount+, Nickelodeon, Univision, and CBS Sports, Univision and NFL digital properties, including NFL+,” press release from CBS Sports.
The previous record was Kansas City’s win over the Philadelphia Eagles in last year’s Super Bowl with 115.1 million people tuning in. This year’s iteration absolutely obliterated said record.
Related: Winners and losers from Super Bowl LVIII
Super Bowl LVIII as the most-watched television program in history
“More than 200 million viewers (202.4) watched all or part of Super Bowl LVIII across networks, the highest unduplicated total audience in history and up +10% vs. last year’s Super Bowl (184 million),” release from CBS Sports.
That’s an absolutely stunning figure right there. It just goes to show us how popular the NFL is right now. Obviously, Taylor Swift has played a role in the increasing popularity of the league. But these numbers are otherworldly.
The top-10 most-watched television programs in United States history are now Super Bowls. In fact, the big game makes up all but one on the list of the top-30 most-watched programs in history. The only exception was the series finale of MASH, which drew 103 million back in February of 1983.
Related: Super Bowl TV ratings history