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The 2024 Super Bowl becomes the most watched NFL championship in history

A San Francisco 49ers fan reacts while watching a telecast of NFL football's Super Bowl 58 on a screen outside the Chase Center in San Francisco on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024.
Noah Berger
/
AP
A San Francisco 49ers fan reacts while watching a telecast of NFL football's Super Bowl 58 on a screen outside the Chase Center in San Francisco on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024.

Sunday's game was the most watched Super Bowl in history.

About 123.4 million people tuned in across several platforms, including CBS, Paramount+, Univision and Nickelodeon, which featured commentary from SpongeBob SquarePants and friends. All together, more than 200 million people watched at least some part of the game, according to CBS, which cited Nielsen and Adobe Analytics data.

The Kansas City Chiefs became back-to-back Super Bowl champs Sunday after defeating the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime.

Viewership was up 7% from last year's championship game, which at the time held the record for the most watched Super Bowl.

Sunday's game also was the most watched television broadcast for a single network, CBS said.

Approximately 2.2 million people tuned into the game on Univision, making it the most viewed Spanish language broadcast of the Super Bowl, CBS said.

Several factors likely contributed to the high viewership. Earlier this month, Nielsen expanded its availability of "out-of-home" viewership counts – which include audiences at airports, hotels, bars, etc. – to all 50 states.

Additionally, the game went into overtime and, as throughout much of the season, Taylor Swift, who is dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, was present at the game.

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Ayana Archie
[Copyright 2024 NPR]