Super Bowl Viewers and the Big Halftime Hit
USAWed Feb 11 2026
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The biggest TV audience ever watched a Super Bowl game during the second quarter, with 137. 8 million people tuning in. That beat last year’s record of 137. 7 million by a hair. Even though the game was slower than recent matches, it kept the streak of more than 100 million viewers alive for five straight years.
The match was a defensive battle until the final quarter. No touchdown appeared in the first three quarters, and Seattle held a 12‑0 lead until the last fifteen minutes. This was only the second time in history that a Super Bowl had no early scoring.
The halftime show was another story. A YouTube stream featuring Kid Rock reached 5 million viewers at its peak, but the platform’s total count was over 21 million by Tuesday night. Meanwhile, Bad Bunny’s performance racked up more than 61 million views on the same channel.
Social media exploded for Bad Bunny’s set. Within 24 hours, fans across the globe watched it more than 4 billion times—a jump of 137 % from last year. Over half of those views came from outside the United States, showing how international fans love the event.
Telemundo’s Spanish‑language broadcast drew 3. 3 million viewers, making it the most-watched Super Bowl in that language ever. The halftime show alone pulled 4. 8 million viewers, the highest Spanish‑language viewership for a halftime performance.
NBC’s “Primetime in Milan, ” which followed the game, attracted 42 million viewers for its Winter Olympics segments. That was a huge leap from the previous year’s 24. 3 million, and it marked NBC’s biggest Winter Olympics audience since 2014.
Other NFL numbers look solid. Playoffs drew an average of 37 million viewers over the first three weekends, up 5 % from last year and the second‑highest in a decade. The regular season averaged 18. 7 million, up 10 % from the previous year and ranking second in history since 1988.
These figures show that both football and music can pull huge crowds, even when the game itself is slow. The combination of live sports, viral performances, and global streaming keeps audiences glued to their screens.
