Heading into Super Bowl LIX between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs Sunday, there was a lot of discussion about if Fox might pass the all-time viewership record CBS set last year. CBS averaged 123.7 million viewers across linear, streaming, the Nickelodeon altcast, and the Spanish feed on Univision, but Fox seemed to have a chance to surpass that. And while the extremely lopsided game seemed to ruin those chances, Sports Business Journal‘s Austin Karp reported Monday night that Fox did indeed set the record, averaging 126 million viewers with everything included:
BREAKING: even with a blowout, Fox set a Super Bowl viewership record of 126 million viewers for the Eagles-Chiefs matchup (English+Spanish and digital). Passes record of 123.7 million set last year for Chiefs-49ers
— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) February 11, 2025
Fox’s Michael Mulvihill later confirmed this, quote-tweeting a network release on it and saying that this is a “conservative” projection (so the final total may be higher still):
Last night’s Eagles rout of the Chiefs will go down as the new most-watched Super Bowl of all time.
FOX conservatively projects 126 million viewers for the game, 131.2m for the halftime and a peak of 135.7m.
Final updated numbers coming from Nielsen in the morning. https://t.co/Y86DBvT0pT
— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) February 11, 2025
Ahead of the game, there was some hope for Fox’s record aim considering Nielsen measurement changes to include Big Data+panel first-party numbers and full out-of-home measurement across the country. Also working in Fox’s favor was their decision to provide free streaming on Tubi and NFL digital properties, plus the unusual move of having two Spanish telecasts (on their own Fox Deportes and NBCUniversal’s Telemundo). As noted in that release, Tubi alone counted for 13.6 million average viewers here.
When the game actually started, though, it certainly seemed like beating CBS’ previous record might not happen given how lopsided the on-field contest turned out. The Eagles led 7-0 at the end of the first quarter and 24-0 at the half, prompting jokes on the Alabama Crimson Tide and quite the one-liner from ESPN’s Dick Vitale. And the final score of 40-22 was somewhat flattering to the Chiefs, who did most of their damage once the game was well in hand.
Still, lots of viewers stuck around, it seems. And it’s notable that the Kendrick Lamar-led halftime show averaged 131.2 million viewers, not far off the overall peak of 135.7. So many stuck around at least through halftime, and then perhaps for some of the game afterwards. And that wound up being enough for Fox to get the record. We’ll see by just how much they hit that when the final numbers come in, but a conservative projection of 126 million is certainly enough for a record claim. Indeed, as Mulvihill noted, the projection is only because a few components aren’t yet in, but they’d still be at a record if they assigned those a zero:
FOX’s 126m viewers for Super Bowl LIX is a projection because Nielsen data available today excludes a few digital pieces such as Tubi viewing on mobile devices.
Even if we gave those pieces a projection of zero this would still be a record audience. Complete number in the AM.
— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) February 11, 2025
It will be interesting to see just how high the final number is. It may approach the 128 million AA’s Drew Lerner projected. But even the 126 million alone is remarkable, and speaks to the incredible reach even a lopsided Super Bowl can have.
