The Taylor Swift Effect! Super Bowl 2024 was the most-watched Super Bowl of all time with 123.4 million viewers – and the second most-watched TV show in history after the Apollo 11 moon landing

The Super Bowl averaged 123.4 million viewers on Sunday night, the most-watched telecast in history and the second-most-watched U.S. broadcast event, behind the Apollo 11 moon landing.

The previous record belonged to last year's Super Bowl, which averaged 115.1 million viewers. CBS Sports announced the astonishing numbers less than 24 hours after the Kansas City Chiefs lifted the Lombardi Trophy.

The Chiefs, flanked by Taylor Swift's support for tight end boyfriend Travis Kelce, defeated the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in a thrilling overtime victory to win the Super Bowl in Las Vegas.

Only the Apollo 11 moon landing was watched by more people in history, with an estimated average of between 125 and 150 million people watching the 1969 event live across multiple networks.

On CBS itself, 120 million people watched the game, the largest audience in history for a single network. Incredibly, more than 200 million viewers watched at least part of the Super Bowl across all networks and streams that aired the game.

Kelce helped the Chiefs win the Super Bowl over the 49ers in the most-watched broadcast ever

Only the Apollo 11 moon landings recorded higher ratings than Sunday's game

Swift appeared for 54 seconds on the CBS broadcast of the Super Bowl on Sunday night, which represents less than one percent of the entire time the game was in progress.

The rest of the top 10 most-watched events of all time are all Super Bowls, which date back to 2011 – showing that while Swift will likely have influenced the ratings, games are still extremely popular without the pop star.

The Super Bowl increased in viewership by seven percent compared to last year. Final Nielsen data will be available Tuesday morning.

The game's total audience was up 10 percent from last year. Univision averaged more than 2.2 million viewers, the most for a Super Bowl for a Spanish-language channel.

Paramount+, CBS's streaming service, also had a record audience for the Super Bowl.

NFL regular-season games averaged 17.9 million viewers in 2023, tied for second most since averages were first tracked in 1995.

Millions of Swift fans watched various Chiefs games throughout the season, helping the NFL set viewership records throughout the season.

The “Anti-Hero” singer's likely in-person presence at the Super Bowl likely had millions of her fans tuning in to see her cheer on Kelce.

Although the Super Bowl has set many American broadcast records, its viewership is eclipsed by other television events worldwide.

The most watched event in the world was Queen Elizabeth II's state funeral, which attracted four billion viewers worldwide in September 2022.

Nine events have attracted at least a billion viewers, including three sporting events. The opening ceremony of the 1996 Sumeria Olympic Games is the No. 2 watched event in history with 3.5 billion viewers.

The 1978 rematch between Muhammad Ali and Leon Spinks, Ali's last win of his professional career, attracted two billion viewers worldwide. The 2022 FIFA World Cup final attracted 1.5 billion viewers.

This year's Super Bowl is the sixteenth most watched event in global history.

More than 200 million people watched the Super Bowl for at least part of the championship game

Patrick Mahomes was named Super Bowl MVP for the third time after beating the 49ers

The match saw Kelce win his third Super Bowl, while Swift cheered him on in the stands after racing back to Vegas from Japan, where she had played four straight shows during her Eras Tour in Tokyo.

The Chiefs trailed 10-3 at halftime, with Kelce catching just one pass for one yard after the first two quarters of the game.

He even got into a fight with his head coach Andy Reid, pushing him and yelling in his face as the Chiefs offense stuttered in the second quarter.

But in the second half, Kelce showed his dominance, finishing the game with nine catches for 93 yards.

The Chiefs repeated as Super Bowl champions when they defeated the Eagles in last year's championship game, the previous record holder for largest single-broadcast audience – with Kelce taking on his older brother Jason to claim glory.

After the game, Kelce said, “I'm going to keep going and enjoy this and everything that just happened.

'This is a unique opportunity that I have now been able to take advantage of three times. It gets sweeter and sweeter every time.

“You know the goal has always been to get three. But we couldn't get here without getting those two, and having that target on our backs all year long.”