Sunday Night’s Super Bowl Scores Second-Highest Ratings Ever

Still, Super Bowl 50 ranks as the second highest rated Super Bowl in football history, according to overnight Nielsen ratings data. The Super Bowl has established all time US viewership records with five of its last six contests, and there’s still a shot that last night’s game could eke ahead of last year’s in the finals.

The Broncos’ win wasn’t necessarily easy on the eyes, but that didn’t keep viewers from tuning out Sunday.

Only last year’s Patriots-Seahawks thriller has fared better in the overnights, pulling a 49.7 household rating.

Nielsen will issue total viewer figures for the game later on Monday, including the halftime show that starred Coldplay, Beyonce and Bruno Mars.

You can see 50 is well above the past Super Bowls’ overnights except for XLIX.

The 2015 game – screened on NBC – averaged a 49.7 household rating, which translated into an all-time record national audience of 114.4 million viewers. CBS made the game widely available on tablets, computers and streaming boxes like Apple TV.

The Broncos led for the entire game, so the lack of drama could hurt CBS’s overall total.

The first number for Super Bowl 50, based on Nielsen’s metered markets, is a 49 rating and a massive 73 share among households.