As billions of people prepare for the biggest sporting event in the world in terms of viewership, the World Cup 2018 Russia, we wanted to see the numbers for one other huge sporting event this year, the American Super Bowl, and the most relevant source to turn for such information is Nielsen.
According to results from Nielsen, the telecast of Super Bowl LII on NBC in February, drew an average TV audience of about 103.4 million viewers who tuned in to watch the Philadelphia Eagles take on the New England Patriots.
The game, which had a preliminary 43.1 U.S. household rating and was viewed in an average of 51.5 million homes, featured high-flying offensive performances as Nick Foles and the Eagles captured Philadelphia’s first-ever Super Bowl title.
Preliminary estimates also found that 68% of U.S. homes with televisions in use were tuned into the Super Bowl LII telecast.
The last time the Patriots and Eagles met in the Super Bowl was in 2005, when 86.1 million viewers tuned in to watch the Patriots win back-to-back titles.
In terms of the social nature of the big game, there were 170.7 million social media interactions across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the U.S. about Super Bowl LII on NBC on Feb. 4, 2018.
The top three most social minutes of the telecast on Twitter occurred at 10:20 ET p.m., during which 240,000 Twitter interactions were sent discussing the Eagles winning, 8:35 ET p.m., during which 150,000 Twitter interactions were sent discussing the Pepsi Halftime Show, and 10:06 ET p.m., during which over 129,000 Twitter interactions were sent discussing Tom Brady’s fourth-quarter fumble.
There were 122.1 million organic interactions on Facebook in the U.S. about the game, with 62% of these interactions sent by females and 32% sent by people aged 34 and under.
On Instagram, the New England Patriots owned account saw 1.2 million engagements while the Philadelphia Eagles owned account saw 1.1 million engagements.
And all this was just during the game itself. Now try to imagine the numbers for the World Cup 2018, knowing that virtually the entire world will tune in…
