Super Bowl LX Scored Massive Audience but Missed Viewership Record

Super Bowl LX averaged nearly 125 million viewers across all platforms, making it the second most-watched U.S. television event in history but failing to break the previous year's record, according to data from Nielsen. The slight audience dip for the game between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots broke a four-year growth streak for the NFL's championship.

• Record peak, slight dip: While the total audience was down 2%, as noted by The Hollywood Reporter, the broadcast still hit a new peak of nearly 138 million people tuned in simultaneously during the game's second quarter. The lopsided 29-13 final score may have contributed to the overall viewership decline in the second half.

• Winning the web: Bad Bunny's Apple Music halftime show drew an even bigger crowd than the game, pulling in an audience of over 128 million. The performance became a monster hit on social media, generating a record-breaking four billion views across social platforms in the 24 hours following the event—a 137% increase year-over-year.

• Telemundo's touchdown: NBCUniversal also saw historic success with its Spanish-language broadcast on Telemundo, which averaged 3.3 million viewers. That audience made it the most-watched Super Bowl in U.S. Spanish-language history.

Even a slight dip can't diminish the Super Bowl's status as an unrivaled media event, and the massive social engagement for the halftime show proves that the broadcast's true reach now extends far beyond the traditional television screen.