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Updated Feb. 2, 2015, 4 p.m. PT, 2/2/15.
Executives at NBC wore big smiles through any potential Super Bowl hangover on Monday, with fast national Nielsen numbers proving that Sunday’s Big Game smashed ratings records left and right.
Nearly 115 million viewers tuned in to the dramatic matchup that saw the New England Patriots eventually triumph over the Seattle Seahawks, drawing a massive 49.7 household rating/72 share in metered market overnight ratings.
Those numbers were enough to steal the ratings crowns from rivals Fox (total viewers) and CBS (overnight ratings) and put NBC in the record books with the most-watched telecast in American television history.
Fox had held the total viewers title thanks to last year’s Super Bowl, which drew 112.2 million viewers, which NBC topped by 2.2 million.
CBS’ record for early overnight ratings from the 2013 game—48.1/72—had held for two years before NBC knocked it down.
“Last night’s Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl ranks among the most exciting sporting events in U.S. history,” said Mark Lazarus, chairman, NBC Sports Group. “Super Bowl XLIX delivered for all of our partners, proving once again that the Super Bowl is the most dominant and consistent property on television.”
Big Nights for Local Markets—and Pop Princesses, Too
The guys on the field weren’t the only Bostonians to make history on Sunday.
Fiercely loyal Patriots fans in Boston tuned in to NBC affiliate WHDH, which ended up scoring a 61.0 rating/85 share, a Super Bowl record for the market.
Nielsen reported that Seattle-area fans were slightly less glued to their TV sets: The Big Game pulled a 52.1/89 on NBC affiliate KING5. Those numbers put the Seattle market in a tie for 17th place nationwide.
Host city Phoenix came in third, with a 55.6/82 rating from viewers watching the game on KPNX—another market best.
On the entertainment front, Katy Perry’s halftime scored most-watched and highest-rated titles, too.
Nearly 119 million viewers watched Perry ride in on a giant tiger before performing alongside Lenny Kravitz, Missy Elliott, and a pair of giant, plushy sharks. That’s 3 million more people than Bruno Mars drew to his halftime show on Fox last year.
The halftime show’s 48.2/72 rating climbed two percent from last year.
The Blacklist Benefits
NBC’s post-game broadcast of an all-new episode of The Blacklist performed quite well for the network, delivering a series-high 26.5 million viewers and an 8.7 rating among adults 18-49.
Sunday’s episode of The Blacklist was the best performing primetime entertainment telecast on broadcast television since last year’s Oscars.
Fallon fans can rest easy: Jimmy and The Tonight Show also woke up to good news on Monday. Their special post-Super Bowl edition of the show drew 9.8 million viewers, making it the most-watched post-Bowl late-night talk show since Nielsen introduced People Meters (aka September 1987).
One final programming and ratings note: The newly rebranded NBC Universo used the Super Bowl to relaunch their channel, hosting the exclusive Spanish-language telecast of the game. NBC Universo averaged 368,000 viewers during the telecast of the game, and peaked at 457,000 viewers, enough to make it the most-watched non-soccer program in the history of the channel formerly known as mun2.
Streaming Takes Off
Away from the linear broadcast, the game’s digital performance gave NBC something to brag about Monday, too.
Adobe Analytics reported that the network’s live stream via NBC Sports Live Extra set Super Bowl records for average viewers per minute (800,000), concurrent users (1.3 million), and total minutes (213 million). Engagement clocked in at 84.2 minutes per viewer.
The average viewers per minute of the live stream is a 52 percent jump from Fox’s numbers last year (528,000), and the total live stream minutes consumed beat CBS’ 2013 numbers by 86 percent (114.4 million minutes). Both the Fox and CBS figures were previously considered records for a Super Bowl.
There’s one big caveat for those trying to gauge what those numbers could indicate about customer demand for streaming the Big Game in today’s marketplace: the NBC Sports Live Extra figures do not include mobile streaming figures—NBC doesn’t have NFL mobile streaming rights. These numbers are for desktop and tablet streaming only.
Most-Social Super Bowl, Ever
Blowout numbers were also the headline on the social media story out of Sunday’s game, with both Facebook and Twitter seeing record engagement for a Super Bowl.
Between the two platforms, Sunday is being hailed as the most-social Super Bowl in NFL history.
Twitter said its users sent more than 28.4 million tweets during the game—a new record for the platform—besting 2014’s previous high of 24.1 million tweets.
Twitter users sent 395,000 tweets per minute when the Patriots’ Malcolm Butler intercepted a pass by the Seahawks’ Russell Wilson in the final seconds of the game—the most tweeted moment of the Super Bowl, according to the company.
Facebook users were in an equally record-breaking mood, with 65 million users sharing 265 million posts, comments, and likes about the Super Bowl, according to the company. That’s up from last year’s 50 million users who engaged with the game via Facebook.
Facebook rolled out new metrics this year that gauged the “people per minute” talking about the game. That number peaked at 1.36 million unique people per minute when the Patriots sealed up the win. Katy Perry’s “Firework” finale to her halftime show drew 1.02 million people per minute to Facebook.
As impressive as those numbers are, they weren’t enough to claim the title of most-social sporting event, ever. That honor still rests with Germany’s 7-1 walloping of host nation Brazil during the semifinals of the 2014 World Cup.
That national humiliation saw 35.6 million tweets sent worldwide during the match, with 66 million Facebook users taking to their accounts to talk about the unfolding train wreck.
Read More: Broadcasting & Cable, Variety
Brief Take: The Peacocks were probably strutting Monday in New York, Universal City, and Stamford after a record-setting audience tuned in to watch the game—and the slew of promos for NBC’s winter lineup. And all-time highs on the social media front prove that any brand that doesn’t have a social media plan in place for Super Bowl Sunday is falling down on the job.
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