Super Bowl viewership rose to a record high of 123.4 million

Sunday night's Super Bowl broke viewership records.

An audience of 123.4 million watched the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen and CBS, which broadcast the game. That figure easily surpassed last year's record of 115.1 million, when Kansas City defeated the Philadelphia Eagles. The final Nielsen ratings for the Super Bowl will be announced Tuesday.

The figure is the total number of viewers on CBS, the Paramount+ streaming app, the Spanish-language channel Univision, the NFL digital channels or Nickelodeon, which aired a kid-friendly broadcast. The vast majority watched the game on CBS, which drew 120 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

The game had a lot to offer. Overtime ensued, capped off by a game-winning touchdown pass (for a final score of 25-22), and it featured an elite Kansas City team with a superstar quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. Kansas City starting tight end Travis Kelce also happens to be dating a megastar in Taylor Swift, who attended the game in Las Vegas.

At a time when traditional ratings are in freefall, the NFL, and the Super Bowl in particular, has remained immune to massive changes in viewership that are impacting the rest of the media world. Thirteen of the last fifteen Super Bowls have attracted more than 100 million viewers, a larger audience than in previous decades, according to Nielsen.

Sunday's performance also capped a big year for NFL ratings.

According to Nielsen, viewership rose 7 percent, falling just short of the 2015 record. Several playoff games set ratings records, including the AFC championship game on CBS, which scored more. than 55 million viewersand an AFC divisional playoff game that drew more than a tie 50 million. The NFC championship game was just short of a record.

League officials have pointed out to numerous close games this season – along with a playoff hunt that still involved several teams towards the end – as major reasons ratings rose. (It's less clear how much Ms. Swift helped increase viewership.)

Other live events, such as some award shows, have also seen good returns recently. Last week, the Grammy Awards, also on CBS, drew about 17 million viewers, a 34 percent increase over last year's ceremony. Viewership for the Oscars has increased in recent years.

The success of NFL broadcasts stands in stark contrast to the rest of traditional television, which has been in a nosedive for years as more and more viewers migrate to on-demand streaming entertainment. Viewership among the major broadcast networks has fallen 12 percent since the start of the current television season in September.

Last year's Hollywood writers' and actors' strikes have left broadcast networks largely starved of new episodes of scripted television series over the past five months, and CBS has been particularly affected. According to Nielsen, the network's primetime audience has declined by 30 percent since the start of the television season.

But help may be on the way. CBS is introducing new episodes of scripted shows this week, and promotional videos for the upcoming lineup circulated during the Super Bowl broadcast. The overtime game also meant extra commercial breaks, which netted CBS about $35 million extra. Adweek reported. CBS had sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of commercial time for the game.