By the end of the night, a new NFL champion will be crowned. On one sideline, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs will attempt to win their second title under the leadership of Andy Reid. On the other end, the Philadelphia Eagles will look to win the first championship of the Jalen Hurts era. Adding on, viewers can expect to see a number of new trailers, a Babyface performance and a halftime show featuring the one and only, Rihanna. With all of that on the table, media insiders expect this year’s Super Bowl to break a number of viewership records.
Nearly ten years ago, 114.4 viewers tuned in to watch the Patriots beat the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. In 2023, Fox Sports EVP and Head of Strategy and Analytics Mike Mulvihill believes Super Bowl LVII will attract a record-high 115 million viewers.
“The big events of this season have really delivered, so that gives you a backdrop of optimism,” Mulvihill told John Ourand of Sports Business Journal.
“If you ranked every possible Super Bowl matchup, 1 through 256, Kansas City-Philly is a top-five matchup, if not a top three.”
Viewership in the NFL has been trending upward since the COVID-19 pandemic defined much of the 2020-2021 season. Late last year, the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys drew 42 million viewers for a regular season game. By the end of the final quarter, it was deemed the most-watched regular season game aired by any network in NFL history.
Mulvihill believes that the avid fanbases in Philadelphia paired with increased viewership in the greater New York area will lead to record-breaking numbers.
“We’re going to see a huge pop in Philly and probably a little bit of a pop in New York,” Mulvihill explained to John Ourand of Sports Business Journal.
“Those eastern Pennsylvania markets, Scranton and Harrisburg, are bigger than people really realize. I think we’ll see at least a million additional viewers just from the Eagles’ home territory. Kansas City will do a huge number, and Phoenix as the host city will do a big number, which we didn’t really get from L.A. last year. So just by trading L.A. and Cincinnati for Philly, Kansas City, and Phoenix, I think you’re picking up two to three million right there.”
