Super Bowl LVIII was historic for the Kansas City Chiefs and the television landscape as a whole, as Sunday’s game (Feb. 11) was the most-watched television program in history.
Variety reported this week that an average of 123.4 million viewers tuned in to see the Chiefs defeat the San Francisco 49ers in overtime. CBS hosted the majority of viewers, with 112 million utilizing their channel. The remaining viewers were scattered between Nickelodeon’s unique broadcast featuring commentary from Spongebob, CBS Sports, Paramount+, Univision, and the NFL’s various viewing services, namely NFL+. Paramount Global also reported a record number of viewers, though they did not share the number.
Coincidentally, the previous record was held by the 2023 matchup, which also featured the Chiefs. They defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII by a score of 38-35.
Many people attribute the increased interest in this year’s game to the fact that Taylor Swift is dating Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce and has been an active presence at Chiefs games all season. She might have gained some more “Swifties” in the NFL leadership, if she did play a part in these numbers.
The Kansas City Chiefs came into this year’s Super Bowl as the underdogs, despite being defending champions. They had a difficult regular season by their standards, even though they won their division with ease and finished with an 11-6 record. Patrick Mahomes had to do something he had never experienced in his remarkable six-year career: lead the Chiefs throughout the playoffs without the home-field advantage.
They opened the postseason with a victory over the Miami Dolphins in the Wild Card round before heading to Buffalo to take on the Bills, who had beaten them in December. They got the win there and then traveled to Baltimore to take on the AFC’s top dog and Super Bowl favorite, the Ravens. Somehow, some way, the Chiefs got the job done there too, and headed to their fourth Super Bowl in five years.
Super Bowl LVIII was a rematch of Super Bowl LIV between the Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, which the Chiefs ended up winning via a 21-point comeback in the fourth quarter. They didn’t have as high of a mountain to climb in this year’s game, but things did look bleak as they trailed by three points early into the fourth quarter. The powerhouse teams traded field goals, with the last coming from Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker with three seconds left in the final frame to send them into overtime.
The 49ers opted to receive the ball first, but had to settle for a field goal. The Chiefs drove the ball down the field and, much like the fourth quarter, put points on the board with three seconds left. It was a game winning three-yard pass from Mahomes to Mecole Hardman that secured the overtime victory.
Mahomes was named Super Bowl MVP for the third time in his short career, and the Chiefs became the first back-to-back champions in over 20 years.