Chiefs vs. Bucs Super Bowl Seen by 96.4M Viewers, Sets NFL Live-Stream Record

Super Bowl LV pitting the Kansas City Chiefs against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was seen by 96.4 million viewers across all platforms, according to Richard Deitsch of The Athletic.

That represented a significant drop from last year's Super Bowl LIV between the Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, which was viewed by 102.1 million.

Super Bowl LV did set a streaming record, however, as the game brought in an average-minute streaming audience of 5.7 million. Per Deitsch, that was the largest streaming audience in Super Bowl history and up 65 percent from last year.

While Super Bowl LV had a tantalizing matchup in the form of the widely regarded greatest quarterback of all time in the Bucs' Tom Brady against the GOAT-in-waiting, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, it didn't bear out on the field.

Tampa led 21-6 at halftime and never looked back, and the Chiefs' vaunted offense didn't score a touchdown.

With the game seemingly well in hand after three quarters, it stands to reason that some of the more casual viewers may have tuned out before the contest was officially over.

Sunday's game stood in stark contrast to last year's Super Bowl LIV, which saw the Chiefs overcome a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter and score the go-ahead touchdown with just 2:44 remaining.

The 31-9 final of Super Bowl LV represented the most lopsided score in the big game since the Seattle Seahawks beat the Denver Broncos 43-8 in Super Bowl XLVIII seven years ago.

A lower Super Bowl rating this year compared to last mirrored an overall drop in viewership for the NFL in 2020.

According to Nielsen (h/t Brad Adgate of Forbes), NFL regular-season games averaged 15.4 million viewers, which was down 7 percent from 2019.

That marked the first drop in average viewership from one season to the next since going from 16.5 million in 2016 to 15.0 million in 2017.