The Super Bowl 2021 ratings are finally out – and it’s not great.
CBS announced Tuesday morning that 96.4 million viewers watched the game on all their platforms, “including the CBS Television Network, CBS Sports and NFL digital properties, Buccaneers and Chiefs mobile properties, Verizon Media mobile properties and ESPN deporting television and digital properties.”
Tom Brady and the Buccaneers sailed after a 31-9 victory over the Chiefs on Sunday, with the final result during most of the second half.
CBS saw the game as the most live stream ever, with 5.7 million viewers on digital platforms.
While CBS did not disclose the number of viewers watching the match on CBS, Sports Business Journal reports the total number was 91.629 million.
Concerns in the sports media industry increased when the ratings for the match on Monday were not announced, which is very unusual.
“Super Bowl numbers are still being processed and verified,” Nielsen said in a statement Monday night. “We expect final viewing, including out-of-home viewing (OOH), to be available to the media (Tuesday).”
Last season’s Super Bowl, a Chiefs victory over the 49ers on Fox, averaged 102.1 million viewers on all platforms.
Fans in the Boston market were just as interested in seeing Brady in the Super Bowl as ever. The rating in Boston was 57.6, according to Sports Business Journal, which is the second best Super Bowl rating the market has produced. The only Super Bowl Tom Brady won in the 2015 Super Bowl XLIX, when the Patriots beat the Seahawks for Brady’s fifth ring. The Boston rating for that game was 61.
Boston’s Super Bowl 2021 rating was higher than the Tampa market (52.3).
In Kansas City, where Chiefs fans were hoping for a second consecutive championship, the score was 59.9 with a high of 63.1, per Sports Business Journal. Kansas City, Boston and Tampa were the top three markets.
Amid many different circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the New York rating had a small rise to 45.7, up from 45.2 last year.