Super Bowl LVIII sets new viewership record for most-watched telecast in American history

CBS won big with its broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII.

The Kansas City Chiefs’ overtime win against the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl on Sunday night was the most-watched telecast in history, the network announced on Monday. The game averaged a total of 123.4 million viewers across all of CBS's platforms.

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CBS accounted for 120 million of those viewers alone, which made it the largest audience in history for a single network. The game was also the most streamed Super Bowl in history on Paramount+, and more than 200 million viewers watched at least part of the game on either CBS, Paramount+, Nickelodeon or Univision.

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs mounted a game-winning drive in overtime to beat the 49ers 25-22 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Sunday night. It marked the Chiefs’ second-straight Super Bowl win, which led to Mahomes’ third Super Bowl MVP award. The game was the first of its kind to be held in Las Vegas, and it marked the third that Tony Romo and Jim Nantz called together on CBS.

Under Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid, the Chiefs quickly turned into one of the most popular and most successful franchises in the sport. They've been to the Super Bowl in four of the last five seasons, and they made it to at least the AFC conference championship game in the other two seasons when they didn't reach the big game.

Pop superstar Taylor Swift's relationship with tight end Travis Kelce didn't hurt the Chiefs' popularity this season, either. She attended 13 Chiefs games throughout the year to support her boyfriend, and she made a trek from Tokyo after playing a concert there on Saturday night to Las Vegas in time for the Super Bowl. Her presence frequently drove up viewership numbers and the NFL's popularity as a whole.

By comparison, last year’s Super Bowl between the Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles set the all-time record with an average audience of 115.1 million viewers across Fox’s networks and platforms. The game in 2023 is now the second-most-watched program in American TV history. Only two Super Bowls dating back through 2010 actually had less than 100 million average viewers.

Fox will broadcast the Super Bowl next year from New Orleans. NBC will get the game in 2026, and then ABC and ESPN will get it in 2027 before it returns to CBS in 2028.