Houston, the Patriots have landed. In the greatest comeback and first overtime game inSuper Bowl history, the New England Patriots defeated the Atlanta Falcons, 34-28, Sunday night on Fox, delivering the network a record 172 million total viewers for all or part of the historic event. An average audience of 113.7 million watched the game on the FOX broadcast network, FOX Deportes and Fox Sports GO & NFL Digital, including 111.3 million on Fox alone.
With a total audience of 172 million, more people watched last night’s Super Bowl onFoxthan any other program in U.S. television history. Super Bowl LI recorded an average audience of 113.7 million viewers on Fox, Fox Sports GO & NFL Digital and Fox Deportes, which is tied for the second most-watched Super Bowl of all time across all platforms (vs. 115.8 million in 2015). With 111.3 million average viewers on the Fox broadcast network,Super Bowl LIis the fifth most-watched program in television history and Fox’s second most-watched event ever behindSuper Bowl XLVIII(vs. 112.2 million)
Sunday’s game, in which New England overcame the largest deficit in Super Bowl history, saw the largest in-game audience growth on record, as the average audience swelled 29 percent from kickoff through overtime in the 10:00-10:15 PM ET window.Super Bowl LIpowered Fox to an easy win across all networks in prime time Sunday night, and the 45.3/70 household rating/share ranks as the highest-rated telecast of the broadcast season.
More than 650,000 total viewers tuned in to watch the game in Spanish on Fox Deportes, setting a record for the most-watched non-soccer event in Spanish cable television history. Fox Deportes eclipsed its own record of 561,000, set in 2014 during the first everSuper Bowl telecastin Spanish in the U.S., by nearly 90,000. Viewership peaked at 911,000 from 9:45-10:00 PM ET.
Super Bowl LIis the most live-streamed Super Bowl ever, delivering an average minute audience of 1.72 million, up +23% over last year (vs. 1.4 million) and up +224% over Fox’s last Super Bowl stream in 2014 (vs. 530,523). The live stream ofSuper Bowl LIwas carried on FOXSportsGO.com, the Fox Sports GO app on tablets and connected devices including Xbox One, Apple TV, Roku, Android TV, Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV, as well as NFL Mobile and go90 for Verizon customers and the NFL app on Xbox One and Windows 10.
Super Bowl LIis the single most talked about television program ever, according to Nielsen Social Content Ratings, with 48 million social authors across Facebook and Twitter generating 191 million social interactions.Super Bowl LIis the firstSuper Bowlin which Facebook has been included in the Nielsen Social Content Ratings. Social interactions peaked during the 10:30-10:45 PM ET window with Patriots running backJames White’s game-winning touchdown serving as the most-tweeted minute (177,865 at 10:27 PM ET).Lady Gaga’s halftime performance drew 117.5 million viewers during the 8:15-8:30 PM ET window and ranks as the second most-watchedhalftime showin Super Bowl history behindKaty Perry’s performance atSuper Bowl XLIX(vs. 120.7 million).
The FoxSuper BowlSunday pregame show averaged a 10.1/20 household rating/share (20.719 million viewers) for its nearly five hours of programming from 2:00-6:38 PM ET. PresidentDonald Trump’s interview with Fox News Channel’sBill O’Reilly, which aired in the pregame show during the 4:00-4:15 PM ET window, drew a 6.8/15 household rating/share with 12.2 million viewers. Fox Sports' liveSuper Bowl LIcoverage began withSkip & Shannon: Undisputed Super Bowl Special, which attracted 2.4 million viewers from 12:00-1:00 PM ET and is the most-watched sports debate show in U.S. television history. FoxSuper BowlKickoff pulled in 4.1 million viewers from 1:00-2:00 PM ET, the second most-watched edition of Fox NFL Kickoff ever.
The premiere of24: Legacydelivered a 6.1 in Adults 18-49 and 17.6 million total viewers, making it the most-watched episode in24franchise history. Among Adults 18-49,24: Legacyis broadcast’s highest-rated series debut since2 Broke Girls(7.1/16 LS, 9/19/11) and highest-rated broadcast entertainment telecast this season.24: Legacyaired from 11:00 PM-12:00 AM ET/8:00-9:00 PM PT, which was the third latest post-Super Bowlstart time in telecast history.
