What if you threw a party and only 125 million came?
This year’s Super Bowl pits two low-wattage teams in a rematch from 11 years ago. It won’t come as a shock if this year’s broadcast, on NBC, sees a drop from last year’s record ratings.
This year’s matchup of the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots doesn’t have the usual superstars of the recent past — no Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Rob Gronkowski or Travis Kelce. Neither of the quarterbacks running the show at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California — Seattle’s Sam Darnold or New England’s Drake Maye — will likely host Saturday Night Live anytime soon.
Yet Sunday will be the closest thing the US has to a sports national holiday. (The game kicks off at 6:30 p.m. US East Coast time.)
The NFL builds demand in the regular season, playing 272 games a year. The NBA plays 1,230 total, while each Major League Baseball team plays 162.
Other sports leagues also ask their fans to commit to two months’ worth of seven-game series for their respective playoffs. The NFL counters with 13 total postseason games over five weeks. Unlike its pro US competitors, football is winner-take-all in every single playoff matchup up to the Super Bowl.
By the late 2000s, A-list acts like Bruce Springsteen who could sell out a football stadium themselves became the norm, and the viewership kept climbing. The 1996 Super Bowl, between the Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers, attracted 94 million viewers, then a record for the event. Every game since 2008 has topped that number.
Finally, the weekend should also bring in an audience that might not care for either football or music. Every Super Bowl contains roughly 50 minutes of advertising time — the most valuable 50 minutes on television. Advertisers treat the game like their own championship, waiting all year to unveil the most expensive, star-studded ads made for this night.
There are countless viewers who can’t name a player on either team but want to see what products well-known brands will try to sell them. Especially as it’s more common these days for the biggest entertainment stars to participate: This year, Bradley Cooper, Ben Affleck and George Clooney are among the celebs featured in commercials.
