How many people watched the Super Bowl? According to new data from the Nielsen Company, more than 110 million people tuned in to Super Bowl XLVI last night to watch the New York Giants defeat the New England Patriots, making last night’s football game the most watched program in US television history.
Sports Illustrated reports that Super Bowl XLVI brought in 111.3 million viewers, beating the record set by last year’s Super Bowl which brought in 111 million viewers.
Viewership peaked last night during the final minutes of the fourth quarter at a 117.7 million viewers.
Madonna also set a Super Bowl record. Her show last night ( you can see a video of the performance here ) was the most watched Super Bowl show in history. 114 million people tuned in to watch Madonna’s halftime show, which is four million more than the amount of people who watched the Black Eyed Peas in 2011.
Nielsen has been keeping track of viewership during the halftime show since 1991. Madonna’s performance was the most watched in history.
According to SI, the last three Super Bowls now sit at 1, 2, and 3 on the most viewed programs list. The 1983 finale of M*A*S*H is the fourth most viewed show in TV history.
Were you one of the 111.3 million that watched Super Bowl XLVI last night? Did you tune in to watch Madonna’s halftime show?
The Super Bowl last night also set a few records for most tweets per second . At the end of the game, Twitter users sent 12,333 tweets per second. During Madonna’s halftime show, they sent 10,245 Tweets per second.