By Dawn Chmielewski
LOS ANGELES, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Nearly 125 million U.S. viewers tuned in to watch the Seattle Seahawks crush the New England Patriots in Sunday’s Super Bowl, making it the second-most-watched Super Bowl in U.S. history, according to Nielsen data released on Tuesday.
The Seahawks’ 29-13 victory over the Patriots averaged 124.9 million viewers on the Comcast-owned NBC network, Peacock streaming service and Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo, Nielsen reported.
The figure also covers the National Football League’s NFL+ streaming service.
The national championship game ranked just behind last year’s Super Bowl matchup on Fox, in which the Philadelphia Eagles trounced the Kansas City Chiefs. That competition averaged a record 127.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
This year’s audience for the Super Bowl, the most-watched event annually on U.S. television, peaked at 137.8 million, Nielsen said.
Advertisers paid as much as $10 million for 30-second commercials during the game.
The Super Bowl halftime show featuring Latino rap star Bad Bunny averaged 128.2 million viewers in the United States, according to Nielsen. It created buzz across social media, with total social consumption reaching 4 billion views within the first 24 hours of the performance, according to NBC Sports.
Bad Bunny transformed Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, into an homage to his native Puerto Rico in a high-energy performance that included surprise appearances by Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin and a tribute to reggaeton pioneer Daddy Yankee.
The selection of Bad Bunny, whose given name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, to headline the halftime show drew a rebuke from President Donald Trump and other conservatives over the entertainer’s choice to perform entirely in Spanish and his outspoken criticism of U.S. immigration policy.
The conservative group Turning Point USA produced an alternative halftime concert, which it called the “All-American Halftime Show”, featuring Kid Rock and other artists.
(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Editing by Howard Goller and Cynthia Osterman)
