The Super Bowl was watched by even more people than first thought. That is the conclusion of a new study commissioned by the NFL and done in cooperation with Nielsen Media Research.
Earlier this month, FOX reported that an average audience of 113 million people tuned in to see the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII. But new data suggests that the average audience may have been closer to 136 million.
Data from nearly 5200 households was used in the survey. It showed that the average minute audience was 20% higher than originally thought. It is a similar phenomenon to Thanksgiving Day. The audience for the holiday games in 2022 set a record but still was undercounted.
The purpose of the surveys is to get an accurate reflection of what large gatherings mean for the league’s television audience. The league contends that on special occasions, more people are watching NFL games outside of their home than Nielsen ratings reflect.
“What the survey is telling us is that for those tent-pole events, we’re seeing a fairly significant lift,” Paul Ballew, chief data and analytics officer for the NFL, concluded.
