The only two things more than reliable than the annual Super Bowl TV ratings might be death and taxes.
The Super Bowl, the NFL’s championship game since 1967, is the most consistently watched program in the history of American television, and the most viewed TV show in any given year. Sunday’s Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers should be no different.
Ever since the first Super Bowl was broadcast on two networks, the audience has risen steadily from around 50 million viewers to more than 115 million.
Meanwhile, the ratings and audience share have remained stable through the years, as opposed to the World Series and the NBA Finals, whose numbers tend to fluctuate and suffer declines.
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How many viewers watched Super Bowl LVII?
The Kansas City Chiefs’ 38-35 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII, which was broadcast last Feb. 12 on Fox, had a total viewership of 115.1 million, making it the most-watched Super Bowl ever.
That surpassed the number for Super Bowl XLIX, which drew an average of 114.8 million viewers for the game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks in 2015, when the Patriots beat the Seahawks on Malcolm Butler’s interception of Russell Wilson at the goal line to preserve their victory.
Super Bowl TV ratings: 5 most-watched Super Bowls of all time
| SB | DATE | NETWORK | AVG. VIEWERS (in millions) |
| LVII | Feb. 12, 2023 | Fox | 115.1 |
| XLIX | Feb. 1, 2015 | NBC | 114.4 |
| XLVIII | Feb. 2, 2014 | Fox | 112.2 |
| L | Feb. 7, 2016 | CBS | 111.9 |
| XLVI | Feb. 5, 2012 | NBC | 111.35 |
Super Bowl LVII ranks second to the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969, as the most-watched broadcast in U.S. history.
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Which Super Bowls have had the best ratings?
The highest-rated Super Bowl was Super Bowl XVI, which had a household rating of 49.1 when the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, 26-21, in 1982 for the franchise’s first Super Bowl title.
Following are the five highest-rated Super Bowls.
| SB | DATE | NETWORK | HH RATING |
| XVI | Jan. 24, 1982 | CBS | 49.1 |
| XVII | Jan. 30, 1983 | NBC | 48.6 |
| XX | Jan. 26, 1986 | NBC | 48.3 |
| XLIX | Feb. 1, 2015 | NBC | 47.5 |
| XII | Jan.15, 1978 | CBS | 47.2 |
According to Nielsen, Super Bowl XVI is the fourth-highest rated broadcast, with the final episode of M*A*S*H being No. 1 at 60.2
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How many people will watch Super Bowl LVIII?
If the numbers for the AFC and NFC championship games matter, the Super Bowl LVIII could easily draw another record-setting audience.
The AFC Championship Game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens drew the largest TV audience in the game’s history, and that’s no surprise considering the massive impact that international superstar Taylor Swift has had as the girlfriend of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
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The game averaged 55.47 million viewers and a 25.5 household rating on CBS. That broke the previous high of 54.85 million in 2011, and it was the most-watched CBS program since the 1994 Winter Olympics, which featured the figure-skating conflict between Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding.
Meanwhile, an average of 56.69 million watched the San Francisco 49ers’ come-from-behind victory in the NFC Championship Game, the most since 2012 and making it the fourth most-watched non-Super Bowl show in Fox network history.
Combined, the viewership for the two games averaged 56.1 million, which represents an 11-percent increase over last year.