Super Bowl LV Viewing Trends

Rob Gronkowski and Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers celebrate after defeating the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV at Raymond James Stadium on Feb. 7, 2021 in Tampa, Florida. (Image credit: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

The Super Bowl has come and gone, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ emerging victorious by a comfortable margin over the Kansas City Chiefs. Below, a quick look at viewing trends from Vizio’s Inscape, the TV data company with insights from a panel of more than 17 million active and opted-in smart TVs. And because Big Game action isn’t just confined to TV screens — social platforms are awash with content, starting weeks before kick off— you’ll also see some social video insights from Tubular Labs.

As you’d expect, the game commanded a large percentage of watch-time during the day: Per Inscape, of all the live, linear minutes watched on Feb. 7, nearly a third (27.37%) of the time was spent watching Super Bowl LV. For a match-up that was losing its competitive edge by halftime, viewership stayed fairly steady overall, peaking at 8:04 p.m. ET before gradually trailing off during the second half.

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Super Bowl LV minute-by-minute overall TV share

Unsurprisingly, local area markets around Kansas City and Tampa Bay were among the top for tune-in, but people in Boston — former home of now-Buccaneers Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski — were also watching at a notable rate.

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What did people watch before, during and after the Big Game?

The CBS pregame shows dominated for what people tuned into before kickoff, and The Equalizer premiere immediately following the game won out for what people watched after. Additionally, multiple networks were running marathons over the course of the evening, with shows including Hawaii Five-0, Home Town, Law & Order: SVU, Chopped, etc, which all maintained a baseline of viewers before, during and after.

Diving into specifics, and discounting the pregame shows, before the game began, people were most likely to be watching Hawaii Five-0, Home Town, Law & Order: SVU, Modern Marvels, Puppy Bowl XVII, and Chopped. During the game, America’s Funniest Home Videos was the favored choice by a visible margin, but the marathons of Home Town, Hawaii Five-0 and Law & Order: SVU also took viewers away from the game. After the final whistle, aside from The Equalizer, many people switched over to Dateline NBC and Shark Tank.

Also Read: NFL Regular Season Ad Revenue up 5%: SMI

Minute by minute overall share for shows before and after Super Bowl LV

The Top Super Bowl Twitter Video Creators

While the Super Bowl generated plenty of action on the field, there was lots off of it as well. According to Tubular Labs, from Feb. 1-7, Super Bowl-related content generated over 161 million video views on Twitter. The NFL owned its main event on social video throughout last week in the lead-up to and during the game. However, brands still found ways to get involved in Big Game hype — whether they were advertisers or not.

Tubular Labs shared which Twitter video creators scored the most when it came to views in the last week. While advertisers are all over the list, it’s also worth noting that many used NFL players as well to get their messages out. Of the top 20 Super Bowl videos on Twitter, six were from NFL players serving as influencers.

Here were the top creators by Twitter video views: