As Super Bowl LVIII is now the most viewed telecast ever, what are the other ‘Top 10’ most viewed telecasts?
Just when you thought you’d heard all you were going to hear about Super Bowl LVIII, the NFL was all aflutter to announce that the game broke yet another record. Turns out that CBS Sports’ coverage of Super Bowl LVIII, which featured the Kansas City Chiefs’ 25-22 overtime victory over the San Francisco 49ers, delivered the most-watched telecast in history with a Total Audience Delivery of 123.4 million average viewers across all platforms, including the CBS Television Network, Paramount+, Nickelodeon, Univision, and CBS Sports and NFL digital properties, including NFL+.
Viewership figures are based on Nielsen Fast National data and Adobe Analytics. Final Nielsen data will be available tomorrow.
Record-Setting Viewership
- Super Bowl LVIII is the most-watched program ever, averaging 123.4 million viewers across all platforms, up +7% versus last year’s Super Bowl which was the previous record (115.1 million).
- More than 200 million viewers (202.4) watched all-or-part of Super Bowl LVIII across all networks, the highest unduplicated total audience in history and up +10% versus last year’s Super Bowl (183.6 million).
- Univision averaged more than 2.2 million viewers, the highest Super Bowl viewership on record for a Spanish-language network.
CBS Leads the Way with Largest Audience Ever for Single Network
- Super Bowl LVIII on CBS led the way with 120.0 million viewers, the largest audience in history for a single network.
- Super Bowl LVIII capped off a record-setting season for CBS Sports. The “NFL ON CBS” scored the most-watched regular season since the NFL returned to CBS in 1998 as well as the Network’s best postseason viewership since 1998.
Most-Streamed Super Bowl Ever
- Super Bowl LVIII is the most-streamed Super Bowl in history led by a record-setting audience on Paramount+.
After hearing the news about Super Bowl LVIII being the most viewed telecast ever in the history of the tube, this writer got curious about what the previously most viewed telecasts were, and a little Google research revealed a curious trend. Turns out, the Top 10 Most Viewed Telecasts were “ALL” Super Bowls, according to data provided by the Nielsen Ratings.
| Rank | Broadcast | Average viewers | Date | Network(s) |
| 1 | Super Bowl LVIII | 123,400,000 | February 11, 2024 | CBS / Univision / Nickelodeon |
| 2 | Super Bowl LVII | 115,100,000 | February 12, 2023 | Fox / Fox Deportes |
| 3 | Super Bowl XLIX | 114,810,000 | February 1, 2015 | NBC / Universo |
| 4 | Super Bowl XLVIII | 112,752,000 | February 2, 2014 | Fox / Fox Deportes |
| 5 | Super Bowl 50 | 112,336,000 | February 7, 2016 | CBS / ESPN Deportes |
| 6 | Super Bowl LI | 111,973,000 | February 5, 2017 | Fox / Fox Deportes |
| 7 | Super Bowl XLVI | 111,346,000 | February 5, 2012 | NBC |
| 8 | Super Bowl XLV | 111,041,000 | February 6, 2011 | Fox |
| 9 | Super Bowl XLVII | 108,693,000 | February 3, 2013 | CBS |
| 10 | Super Bowl XLIV | 106,476,000 | February 7, 2010 | CBS |
| 11 | MAS*H (“Goodbye, Farewell and Amen”) | 105,970,000 | February 28, 1983 | CBS |
Although the Apollo 11 Moon landing is the most watched television event in American history, it is considered a news event, meaning that CBS and Nickelodeon’s live telecast of Super Bowl LVIII in 2024 holds the record for the largest average viewership of any live network U.S. television broadcast, with 123.4 million viewers.
The final episode of TV’s iconic “Mash” gets the honorable mention at #11.
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(Source: NFL)
(Cover photo, Image credit: Facebook)
Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today
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