Super Bowl 56 TV ratings released, making sports media history
Super Bowl 56, which featured cross-country opponents, pulled in a historically large audience on Sunday. NBC Sports’ coverage of the big game averaged a total audience of 112 million viewers, according to the network. Super Bowl LVI reached 167 million viewers overall, marking the biggest day in sports media history.
The Los Angeles Rams versus Cincinnati Bengals showdown was the most-watched single telecast in two years and up 8% from Super Bowl LV on CBS.
Cincinnati, home of the losing Bengals, topped the chart of metered markets for the broadcast. They had a 46.1 rating, topping 44 markets with available data. The host city of Los Angeles delivered a 36.7 rating. The top markets following Cincinnati were Detroit, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Boston, Philadelphia and Jacksonville.
On top of the 23-20 game in which the Rams emerged victoriously, the Super Bowl also featured a rapper-packed halftime show. Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, 50 Cent, Dr. Dre and Mary J. Blige all performed inside SoFi Stadium, and received rave reviews.
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NFL also set television ratings records with 2021 playoffs
There were definite signs pointing towards a record-setting Super Bowl. The riveting NFL Playoffs all resulted in 184 million viewers — that’s nearly 60 percent of all Americans — making it a record-breaking year.
Additionally, the AFC and NFC Championship games alone averaged 49.6 million viewers across television and digital platforms, making it the second most-watched Championship weekend since 2016. Additionally, both of the two championship games were the most-watched television shows since Super Bowl LV.
According to NFL Media, 60 percent of Americans using television in NFL windows were watching NFL games, making it the highest Championship Sunday share on record. Digital platforms across the NFL, Yahoo Sports and other broadcast platforms made up an additional 2.0 million followers, the highest for any NFL postseason round excluding Super Bowls on record.
On3’s Simon Gibbs contributed to this report.