Live coverage of this year’s NFL American football Super Bowl game gave US network NBC the largest average audience for a programme in the history of US television, according to audience measurement company Nielsen Media Research.
Nielsen’s fast national data indicated that an average of 111.3 million viewers watched the New York Giants’ 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots.
The game drew a peak audience of 117.7 million in its final half hour, as the result remained in doubt until the final play.
It is the third successive year that the Super Bowl – the showpiece game of the NFL season – generated the highest audience in US television history. Last year’s Super Bowl between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers attracted an average of 111 million viewers to US network Fox – 300,000 less than this year’s audience.
In 2010, 106.5 million tuned in for the New Orleans Saints v Indianapolis Colts match. The last three Super Bowls and the finale of comedy series ‘M-A-S-H’ in 1983 are the only programmes in US television history to have attracted audiences over 100 million.
The Super Bowl Half-Time Show, an entertainment spectacle which this year included a performance by the singer Madonna, attracted an average of 114 million viewers – the largest in its history.
This year’s Super Bowl was the first to be streamed live online. Figures for online viewing have not yet been revealed, but internet search engine Google said that there had been a “significant spike” in searches related to Super Bowl live streaming on game day. “Searches peaked at kickoff, and were made predominantly on desktop, followed by mobile phones and then tablets,” Google said.