The showdown between Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes was the lowest rated Super Bowl since the days of Joe Namath 52 years ago.
Sunday’s Buccaneers-Chiefs Super Bowl 55 averaged a Nielsen-estimated 38.2 rating and 91.63 million viewers on CBS, marking the lowest rated edition of the game since Super Bowl 3 on NBC in 1969 (Jets-Colts: 36.0) and the least-watched since Super Bowl 40 on ABC in 2006 (Steelers-Seahawks: 90.75M). It was just the seventh Super Bowl with less than a 40 rating, and the first since 1990 (49ers-Broncos: 39.0) — snapping a 30-year streak. [Related: Super Bowl ratings history.]
Across all platforms, the game averaged 96.4 million viewers — the lowest since Super Bowl 41 on CBS in 2007 (Colts-Bears: 93.18M). That includes a streaming audience of 5.7 million, the largest such audience ever for an NFL game and up 68% from last year (3.4M).
It bears noting that a sub-40 rating corresponds with a much bigger audience in 2021 than it did in 1990 (73.85M) or in 1969 (41.66M).
Tampa Bay’s surprisingly easy win declined 8% in ratings and 9% in viewership from Chiefs-49ers on FOX last year (41.6, 100.4M) and 7% in both measures from Patriots-Rams on CBS two years ago (41.1, 98.19M). Keep in mind that this year’s figures include out-of-home viewing, while that data was issued separately in previous years.
The historic lows for the Super Bowl are in keeping with the broader trend facing the industry since the wave of cancellations and postponements last March. The lowest rated Super Bowl in 52 years comes less than a month after college football’s national championship posted its worst numbers since the formation of the BCS in 1999. It comes three months after the final round of the Masters posted its worst rating since 1957 and four months after the NBA Finals and World Series hit all-time lows.
The difference between the Super Bowl and those other events is that Sunday’s declines were still relatively modest. The single-digit drop in ratings and viewership compares to much sharper declines for the college football championship (-27%), World Series (-30%), NBA Finals (-49%), final round of the Masters (-58%) and Stanley Cup Final (-61%).
As goes without saying, the Super Bowl remains easily the highest rated and most-watched program in U.S. television even with the multi-year lows. Sunday’s 38.2 rating topped every other television program since 1994, when the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding controversy lifted the 1994 Winter Olympics figure skating competition to consecutive 40+ ratings (48.5 on night one and 44.1 on night two).
Outside of the 1994 Olympics, no sporting event has had a higher rating since Game 7 of the 1986 World Series (Red Sox-Mets: 38.9).
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 2.9, CBS PR]
