Super Bowl LVIII Photo: CBS ©2023 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
It seems counter intuitive in these days of streaming and on demand, but CBS says that its coverage of Sunday’s Super Bowl was the most watched broadcast in history.
Preliminary figures show 123.4 million viewers watched the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII across all platforms is up 7% from last year, itself a record.
Several factors combined to make the game an attractive proposition, two well-matched teams, a comeback win in extra time, a half-time show fronted by Usher with assorted special guests, and another match, this time between the singer Taylor Swift and Chiefs’ player Travis Kelce.
Many viewers may well have tuned in for the romance and the half time ads, a US TV tradition, where a 30 second spot will cost advertisers a cool $7 million.
CBS, which also streamed the game domestically on Paramount+, says it also broke records. However, it has not released a breakdown of how many streams were made. A version tailored for kids ran on Nickelodeon.
