Super Bowl scores record ratings — again

Sunday’s game on Fox, which saw the Kansas City Chiefs lose to the Philadelphia Eagles, averaged 126 million viewers across all platforms, including on broadcast TV, streaming and apps. That marks a 2% increase over last year’s record-breaking game on CBS, if that number holds.

The figure is a mix including Nielsen fast nationals and Fox-provided numbers for Tubi, as well as NFL analytics for viewership on its apps, like NFL+. Nielsen will release an official ratings snapshot Tuesday.

Fox said the game peaked in the second quarter between 8pm and 8:15pm ET when 135.7 million people were tuned into the game. Tubi also earned the honors of hitting record-high streaming viewership with 13.6 million viewers, the network said.

The Super Bowl’s massive viewership makes it all the more valuable to advertisers trying to reach a mass market. Some companies dished out $8 million to secure a 30-second spot during the big game.

The record ratings shows that NFL is still a magnet for viewers, despite the regular season ratings slightly falling 2% for the year. Football games still regularly out-rate anything else on TV during the year, with streaming services wanting a piece of the action. For the first time, Netflix aired a slate of games on Christmas last year.

NBC and Peacock will air next year’s Super Bowl in Santa Clara, California on February 8 — two days after the Winter Olympics begins, which is airing on the same network.