Super Bowl LX drew an enormous audience—but did not set a new record.

After three years of all-time viewership highs in U.S. television history in the NFL’s title game, NBC Sports said late Tuesday that Sunday’s Super Bowl LX averaged 124.9 million viewers, down 2% from last year’s game, and the second-highest audience ever. Sunday’s contest, won by the Seahawks over the Patriots in convincing fashion, was likely dragged down by a dominant defensive performance by Seattle that included no touchdowns by either team until the fourth quarter. 

The game peaked with an audience of 137.8 million in the second quarter, which was a record and just higher than last year’s peak Super Bowl audience. 

The Super Bowl halftime show featuring Bad Bunny, meanwhile, averaged 128.2 million viewers domestically during the quarter-hour of his performance, down 4% from Kendrick Lamar’s average audience of 133.5 million viewers, but higher than the overall game average. The NFL, however, is still compiling a full international audience number given the Puerto Rican superstar’s widespread global appeal.

The network went into the broadcast hoping for a record but did not guarantee it. Spanish-language coverage in the U.S. on Telemundo averaged 3.3 million viewers, the largest figure for a Super Bowl broadcast in Spanish, fueled in no small part by the Bad Bunny show. 

The viewership numbers for Super Bowl LX were tabulated by Nielsen, and they represent the verified data following nearly 48 hours of many unsubstantiated claims circulating around the internet, particularly relating to the Bad Bunny performance. 

Viewership Trends

The audience for Super Bowl LX, though somewhat downbeat, completed an otherwise banner season for the NFL with viewership gains nearly across the board. The league’s regular-season viewership hit the second-highest level in recorded history, while more milestones were set during the conference championship round, the divisional playoffs, the wild-card round, and on streaming. 

Despite the Seahawks’ dominant performance, the Super Bowl LX figure also extended a trend in which the team was part of the least-watched game of the divisional playoff round, and its NFC championship game last month in a Sunday evening broadcast window was outdrawn by the AFC title game in the afternoon slot. 

Notably, this was also the first Super Bowl with Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel measurement process. The methodology, first introduced last September, brings in millions of additional data points from set-top boxes and smart TVs. That expanded view of the market has helped produce viewership gains across much of live sports, and particularly pro and college football—but not with Super Bowl LX. 

Next week, there will also be additional data from Nielsen’s new pilot program of enhanced co-viewing measurement that began in earnest with the Super Bowl. Figures from that test, however, will not be part of the official viewership figure for Super Bowl LX. Ironically, that additional data could help produce a figure higher than the 127.7 million viewer average for last year’s Super Bowl LIX. 

International Impact

The Bad Bunny show, meanwhile, prompted widespread impact on social media and music streaming platforms. 

The NFL said that the performance generated more than 4 billion social views globally in the first 24 hours after the game, up 137% from last year’s halftime show, with more than half of it coming from international markets—a key league priority. On Apple Music, which sponsors the halftime show, Bad Bunny’s DeBí TiRAR MáS FOToS claimed the top spot in the service’s album charts in 46 countries and reached the top 10 in 128 countries. 

Globally, 24 of his songs were on Apple Music’s Daily Top 100 list after the show.

NBA teams are throwing in the towel in early February with the hopes of securing a top pick in the 2026 NBA draft, which features Kansas’s Darryn Peterson, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, and Duke’s Cameron Boozer. 

The Jazz, who have the sixth-best odds currently for the No. 1 pick with a record of 17–37, are the latest team to face tanking allegations, despite being aggressive at the trade deadline by acquiring Jaren Jackson Jr.

Utah’s last three games were all decided by fewer than five points, but its stars have not been on the court in the final minutes. Lauri Markkanen, who averages a team-high 26.9 points per game, did not play in any of the fourth quarters. Jackson made his Jazz debut on Feb. 7 against the Magic, scoring 22 points and helping the team take a seven-point lead into the fourth quarter. He was then pulled, and the Jazz lost by three.

Utah’s apparent tanking reached new heights Monday. Head coach Will Hardy removed Jackson, Markkanen, and Jusuf Nurkić from the game, but the Jazz won, defeating the Heat 115–111. Hardy was asked how close he was to putting Jackson and Markkanen back into the game in the fourth quarter. His answer: “I wasn’t.”

His postgame comments are the first time he has said what’s become an open secret. Utah is tanking and isn’t trying to hide it. 

Miami center Bam Adebayo spoke with reporters after the game, taking a clear stand on whether the Jazz are trying to tank. “We’ve got to find a way to win even against teams that, I guess you could say, are trying to lose,” he said.

Utah is not alone in its efforts. The Nets, who are 15–37, waived pending free agent Cam Thomas despite him being second on the team in points per game. Additionally, Brooklyn did not play two of its best players, Michael Porter Jr. and Egor Dëmin, during Monday’s game against the Bulls, potentially indicating a sign of what’s to come. 

The Wizards have also drawn attention for being very cautious with Trae Young and Anthony Davis. Washington acquired Young on Jan. 7, but the point guard has yet to make his debut with the team due to a right quad contusion. Shortly after the team traded for Davis, it was reported that he’s expected to sit out the remainder of the season to recover from hand and groin injuries. 

GM Will Dawkins added to the speculation of the Wizards potentially tanking, making comments about the draft Monday. “Hopefully the lottery gods have our favor and we can add another high-level young talent in June,” he said. Dawkins did not rule out either player for the season, however, saying both Young and Davis will be re-evaluated after the All-Star break (Feb. 13–18). 

A team that has an incentive to ramp up its tanking efforts is the Pacers. Indiana has the second-worst record in the NBA at 13–40, but it would lose its pick to the Clippers if it falls in the 5–9 range as a result of the Ivica Zubac trade. Therefore, it should come as no surprise to fans if Indiana benches players like Zubac and Pascal Siakam through the team’s final 29 games. 

The NBA’s most recent effort to combat tanking came in 2019, when the league implemented changes to the draft lottery that reduced the worst three teams’ odds for the No. 1 pick to 14%. ESPN insider Shams Charania reported in December that the NBA was looking into new ways to combat tanking, which will be a hot topic throughout the rest of the regular season. 

The NBA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.