The lead-up to the Super Bowl consists of over a month of NFL playoffs, from the wild card round all the way up to the most anticipated Sunday of the year. After winning the previous two Super Bowls this year, the Chiefs were looking for a three-peat. For the Eagles, running back Saquon Barkley was chasing his first Super Bowl victory on the heels of free agency and a record-breaking season that followed. Super Bowl Sunday is full of fun content for both football and non-football fans, from iconic commercials to the halftime show to the game itself. Let’s look at Super Bowl LIX by the numbers.
Viewership
According to Nielsen Media Research, this year’s Super Bowl set a record for viewership, with 127.7 million people tuning in. Furthermore, the audience peaked at around 137.7 million in the second quarter.
According to the NFL, this is the second straight year in which the Super Bowl has hit record viewership numbers.
Food
Americans really enjoy their snacks, as viewers have downed 14.5 thousand tons of chips, almost 32 million pounds, during Super Bowl LIX, according to Hungry Fan.
Cheese plays a major part in the Super Bowl food culture, whether in a dip, as a topping, or otherwise. In total, Americans consume about 88 million pounds of cheese on Super Bowl Sunday!
It was estimated that Americans ate about 1.38 billion wings on Super Bowl Sunday, an increase of 27 million from last year.
Lastly, Americans spent about $130 million on pizzas, amounting to 12.5 million total pies, enough to span the Golden Gate Bridge 1,392 times.
Halftime Show
According to Vulture, Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show attracted 133.5 million viewers, also a 3% increase from last year.
According to The Music Essentials, the popularity of his performance resulted in him surpassing Drake’s record for the most monthly listeners for a hip-hop artist in Spotify history. Lamar was the first rapper to reach 100 million monthly listeners.
Lamar’s album GNX returned to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, while his guest performer SZA’s album SOS rose to No. 2, making it the first time two performers from that year’s halftime show have been No. 1 and No. 2 following their performance.
Stats (According to Philly Sports Network)
Interestingly enough, the Eagles didn’t bring a single blitz the entire game, yet still managed a 38.1% pressure rate and six sacks on Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, according to Philly Sports Network.
The Chiefs struggled to respond to the Eagles’ constant scoring, going down 24-0 at halftime and only managing their first score with 35 seconds left in the third quarter on a 24-yard touchdown pass to rookie Xavier Worthy.
Rookie cornerback Cooper Dejean recorded the first Super Bowl interception in Eagles history and was able to return it for a touchdown on a day that also happened to be his birthday!
Although Eagles kicker Jake Elliot was shaky during the season, he didn’t miss a single kick in the game that mattered most, scoring 16 points to steer the Eagles to a blowout win.
Takeaway
Although some fans were disappointed by the lack of excitement produced by close-scoring games, the Super Bowl ultimately lived up to the hype in the massive numbers it produced for everything that goes into the big game!
