Super Bowl and Bad Bunny miss US TV audience record but new mark set for social media | Super Bowl LX

Sunday night’s Super Bowl and Bad Bunny fell short of setting records for the most watched US broadcast and half-time show.

Seattle’s 29-13 victory over New England averaged 124.9 million viewers on NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL+, according to Nielsen. That fell short of the 127.7 million US viewers who tuned in for Philadelphia’s victory over Kansas City last year on Fox.

However, this year’s Super Bowl became the most-watched program in NBC history as the network celebrates its 100th anniversary.

Bad Bunny’s half-time show averaged 128.2 million viewers. That makes it the fourth-most watched half-time show in history behind Kendrick Lamar (133.5 million in 2025), Michael Jackson (133.4 million in 1993) and Usher (129.3 million in 2024).

This year’s Super Bowl did set one television audience record. The audience for the game peaked at 137.8 million viewers during the second quarter, which is a record. That surpassed the previous mark of 137.7 million during the second quarter of last year’s Super Bowl. It is the fifth straight year the game has averaged more than 100 million viewers.

This year’s audience ended a streak in which the last four Super Bowls had experienced audience increases, although that may be because this game was a fairly one-sided and dull affair on the field. Sunday’s game was just the second in Super Bowl history in which a touchdown had not been scored in the first three quarters. Seattle were up 12-0 going into the final 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, the Turning Point USA half-time show featuring Kid Rock peaked at 5 million viewers at one point on YouTube.

Nielsen did not measure any of the YouTube live stream viewership. Of the linear networks that carried the Super Bowl, the only one Nielsen measures is broadcast network Charge! Full Nielsen ratings for the prior week will be released on Wednesday.

Total social media consumption of Bad Bunny’s half-time show set a record of 4bn views after the first 24 hours, according to the NFL and Ripple Analytics. That represents a 137% increase over last year.

The social media figures include fans, owned platforms, broadcast partners and influencers. The NFL said more than 55% of all social views came from international markets. Full global viewership for the half-time show is expected to be available early next week.

Bad Bunny’s presence may also have increased the Spanish-language audience in the US. Telemundo averaged 3.3 million viewers, making it the most-watched Super Bowl Spanish-language broadcast in the United States. The Super Bowl has been televised in Spanish in the US since 2014.

The audience peaked during the half-time show, averaging 4.8 million viewers – also making it the most-watched Super Bowl half-time in Spanish-language history in the US.