The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ lopsided win over the Kansas City Chiefs combined with a pandemic that prevented many from attending big viewing parties in homes and bars led to the smallest audience for a Super Bowl since 2007.
About 96.4 million people watched ageless wonder Tom Brady lead the Buccaneers to a 31-9 Super Bowl victory over the defending champion Chiefs on CBS , a 5.5% decrease from the 102 million that saw last year’s much closer and coronavirus-free match between the Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers on Fox.
The total audience for both games includes both traditional television and streaming platforms.
The last time the Super Bowl had such a small number of viewers was the 2007 contest between the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears, which averaged 93.2 million viewers.
The audience on CBS was just over 91.6 million, down from the 99.9 million viewers that watched last year’s game on Fox, according to Nielsen.
