Super Bowl LII will go down as one of the most entertaining championship games in recent memory. However, for the NFL, it will go down as the lowest-rated Super Bowl game in recent memory.
The Eagles 41-33 victory over the Patriots drew a 47.4/70 in metered markets. That’s down nearly three percent from last year’s thriller between the Patriots and the Falcons. It’s a 5 percent drop from the last time NBC had the big game in 2014, when the Patriots beat the Seahawks.
Looked at broadly, Super Bowl LII is the lowest-rated Super Bowl game since 2010, when the Colts and Saints, two smallish market teams, faced-off against each other:
If NBC drew a 47.4 overnight rating for the Super Bowl, that's down only 3% from last year (48.8 for Pats-Falcons on Fox). Not a dramatic drop. But lowest overnight for a Super Bowl since 2010 though (46.4 for Saints-Colts on CBS in 2010).
— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) February 5, 2018
The 2015 Super Bowl clash between New England and Seattle holds the title for most watched Super Bowl game ever, with over 114 million viewers. However, since then, the numbers have steadily decreased. Last year’s game for example, drew 111.3 million watchers. The Saints-Colts Super Bowl, which this year’s contest beat by one point, drew just over 110 million viewers. Which projects final total viewing numbers to fall into the 110-112 million viewer range.
The NFL took a ratings hit of ten percent during the regular season in 2017. While the numbers from Sunday’s game do not reflect a 10 percent drop from last year, one wouldn’t necessarily expect them too, since the Super Bowl is more of a cultural event which draws a larger audience.
However, to have Tom Brady and two large market teams play one of the most thrilling championship games ever only to have it rate as the lowest Super Bowl contest in eight years, has to be hugely disappointing to the NFL.
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