Super Bowl TV ratings in the U.S. 1990-2020

TV ratings of the Super Bowl declined for the fourth consecutive year in 2019. The New England Patriots’ victory over the Los Angeles Rams received the joint-lowest household TV rating in the United States since Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003. In 2020, however, the ratings picked up slightly as the Kansas City Chiefs' stunning fourth quarter comeback victory against the San Francisco 49ers scored a rating of 41.6.

Super Bowl ratings the lowest in years

The ratings are compiled by media industry analysts Nielsen, a company that has been measuring television audience patterns in the United States since 1950. The highest Super Bowl rating of all time is 49.1 for the San Francisco 49ers’ triumph over the Cincinnati Bengals in 1982. New England’s sixth Super Bowl win was watched by an average television audience of 98.2 million viewers – the lowest TV viewership of the NFL’s showpiece event since 2008.

The hottest ticket in town

TV viewing figures for the Super Bowl may be falling, but fans continue to attend the event in droves. More than 70,000 spectators watched New England’s triumph in Atlanta in 2019, but that is some way short of the record attendance for the Super Bowl: close to 104,000 fans attended the game in Los Angeles in 1980. Miami is scheduled to host the party in 2020, and it will become the city to have hosted the most Super Bowls.