NEW YORK – The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl drew a total audience of 96.4 million viewers.
According to a CBS report released Tuesday, the total audience record included digital numbers for a match that lost its competitive edge at half time (Tampa Bay won 9/31) and featured low attendance at the stadium from both teams because of the pandemic.
Still, the most watched Super Bowl was in 2015. The New England-Seattle match attracted 114.4 million viewers.
CBS further reported that Sunday’s most-watched NFL game was live, averaging 5.7 million viewers per minute, 65% more than last year’s Super Bowl. It was also the first NFL game to offer over a billion streaming minutes in total.
Kansas City led all markets, measured with a rating of 59.9, up 8% from last year’s Super Bowl rating. The Boston market, driven by Tampa Bay and former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, came in second with 57. Tampa was third with 52.3
Total audiences came across all platforms, including CBS Television Network, CBS Sports, along with NFL digital properties, Verizon Media’s Buccaneers, and Chiefs mobile properties, along with ESPN’s television and digital properties.