Here’s the good news: Super Bowl LIV drew 102 million viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes, and various streaming platforms, per Fox Sports PR.
The biggest game of the year lived up to the hype, and viewers around the country took notice 👀
Super Bowl LIV on FOX is the 10th most-watched Super Bowl in history.#SBLIV pic.twitter.com/QsfFyyMGjh
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) February 3, 2020
On TV alone, the game drew 99.9 million viewers and a 41.6 rating, up a tick from CBS last year.
Super Bowl LIV on FOX averaged a 41.6 HH rating and 99.9M viewers, up 1% on both vs. CBS last year.
— Gil Brandt (@Gil_Brandt) February 3, 2020
And while the game was up from last year (stopping a trend of four straight years of declines since 2015’s high watermark of 114 million viewers), it was still the second least-watched Super Bowl of the last 11 years. The 102 million viewers is down by over three million from 2018 (roughly 105.5 million), and ten million down from 2017 (113 million).
The game did draw an impressive 757,000 million viewers on Fox Deportes (per NFL.com’s Gil Brandt), which appears to be the best mark ever for a Spanish broadcast.
FOX Deportes delivered 757K viewers, up +60% versus ESPN Deportes last year. The power of Shakira and J-Lo. https://t.co/Tb9NMYBznf
— Gil Brandt (@Gil_Brandt) February 3, 2020
Fox is also claiming a streaming audience of 3.4 million, which doesn’t jive with the 102.1 million total viewers and 99.9 million on broadcast, but this is what happens when you have at least ten different streaming sources recorded.
All in all, this is a mixed bag for Fox and the NFL. Viewership was up all season across the NFL’s TV packages, so it’s no surprise that the Super Bowl was up as well, However, while the viewership was up from last year, it still couldn’t hit the high marks of the last decade.
This might be the tenth most-watched Super Bowl ever (as Fox correctly states), but it’s also the tenth most-watched Super Bowl of the last 11 games years. That’s not something to brag about.
