Super Bowl’s record TV ratings increase after custom survey

The first Super Bowl in Las Vegas saw its all-time high American TV rating increase even more.

The TV broadcast reached an estimated 210 million viewers, or nearly two-thirds of all Americans, when the game aired on CBS, Nickelodeon, Paramount+, Univision and NFL+, according to a custom Nielsen survey commissioned by the NFL.

The custom survey included 5,267 households and looked at the size of viewing groups, regardless of location.

The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime Feb. 11 in Super Bowl 58 at Allegiant Stadium to win their second straight championship.

“The Super Bowl is singular across the television and media landscape not only in its unparalleled viewership but because it is largely watched in group settings,” Paul Ballew, chief data and analytics officer of the NFL, said in a statement. “With that in mind, additional measurement is needed in order to have a complete picture of the total viewership of this special event, and the results of this custom survey with Nielsen illustrate the true magnitude of the Super Bowl.”

The new viewership figure is a 4 percent increase over the 202 million unique viewers that were reported by Nielsen’s syndicated ratings, which measures how many people watched at least one minute of the game. That was the most-watched program in American TV history.

The custom survey also revealed that the average minute audience for the Super Bowl was around 143 million viewers.

“Nielsen understands the nuance of the Super Bowl, which historically has drawn the largest television audience of the year and includes unparalleled viewership from large groups of people, both in and out of homes,” said Deirdre Thomas, chief product officer at Nielsen.

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.