The Super Bowl LI ratings are in, and they're pretty massive

Early TV ratings for Super Bowl LI indicate that viewers largely didn’t change channels when the New England Patriots trailed the Atlanta Falcons, 28-3, in the third quarter.

Those who stayed were rewarded with a classic — the Patriots ripping off 31 unanswered points in a comeback for the record books.

Although the TV numbers didn’t quite set records, they came close. Early reports indicate that the game drew a rating of 48.8 rating in the critical 18-49 demographic, which means it came in just behind the all-time mark set in Super Bowl XLIX, which drew a total rating of 39.1 and a record 114.4 million viewers.

[Yahoo Store: Get your New England Patriots championship gear right here!]

That game also involved the Patriots and also had a record comeback, but the Patriots only needed to score 14 down the stretch to topple the Seattle Seahawks two years ago. On Sunday night, the Patriots turned in a miraculous final 28-plus minutes to overcome a record 25-point deficit, and for the most part it appears that viewers stuck around to see if Tom Brady and Co. could do it.

And here are some of the fast national numbers (per Nielsen) that indicate a total viewership north of 113 million viewers across all Fox formats, although that number could rise slightly as the ratings are fully calculated:

Atlanta, Boston and two other New England markets (Providence, R.I. and Hartford, Conn.) all placed in the top 10, with Hartford tying Minneapolis for 10th with a 54.0 rating. But the No. 1 viewing market? That would be Pittsburgh (57.9 household rating/78 share), followed by Buffalo (57.2/78). Atlanta (57.0/82) finished third, and Boston checked in at eighth with 54.3/81.

Fox had to be breathing a sigh of relief around 9 p.m. EST when the comeback was in full swing. That prevented a nightmare blowout scenario, and it allowed these numbers to hit pretty darned big. Not shockingly, Fox destroyed all other networks — none of which offered any new programming — on Sunday night. NBC, CBS and ABC combined to draw a 1.0 rating, with 6.1 million total viewers.

Coming off a mostly unsatisfying playoff run that featured a host of large-margin games, the NFL frankly needed this one. It was Fox’s highest-rated prime-time broadcast of the season. Thanks, Brady.

– – – – – – –

Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

Follow @Eric_Edholm