The Eagles blew out the Chiefs, and Fox blew out the ratings record.
Today, Fox reports that Super Bowl 59 reached an average of 126 million viewers. Those numbers come from Fox projections, including Nielsen Fast Nationals and Tubi/NFL first-party analytics.
With the rating, Super Bowl 59 becomes the most-viewed Big Game ever, beating Paramount’s showing of Super Bowl 58, which received 123.7 million viewers last year.
The ratings are inclusive of Fox, Fox Deportes, Tubi, Telemundo, and NFL digital properties, according to the company.
Fox said viewership peaked from 8 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. ET in the second quarter, reaching 135.7 million viewers. The company also said there was record-high streaming viewership, totaling 14.5 million viewers. Meanwhile, Tubi, which streamed the game for free, delivered 13.6 million viewers.
With the numbers, Fox beats its viewership for Super Bowl 57, which was 115.1 million, by more than 10 million viewers.
The massive viewership comes despite a game that wasn’t competitive late due to the Philadelphia Eagles’ decisive win over the Kansas City Chiefs. It also comes amid an unprecedented demand for ad space in 2025.
This year, Fox sold 30-second ads for more than $8 million for the first time, with over 10 ads coming in at that price and a waitlist of advertisers ready to jump in for any availability. Pregame ads were also going for as high as $4.5 million, and post-game ads could reach $4 million.
The company sold out the game months in advance, and ADWEEK previously reported Fox was approaching $700 million from just its national ad sales, which is a new record.
“We’ve seen demand increase where you can aggregate significant scale in one commercial. You can’t do that in other places. Really, live sports is the last bastion of a place to do that,” Mark Evans, head of Fox Sports ad sales, previously told ADWEEK.
With the increased demand, media buyers are already reaching out to NBCUniversal, which holds the rights to next year’s Super Bowl broadcast from Levi’s Stadium (Santa Clara, CA), home of the San Francisco 49ers.
Speaking with ADWEEK back in May 2024, Mark Marshall, the company’s ad sales chief, said preliminary talks had already started in terms of the Super Bowl and other live event opportunities.
