By: Jordan Kaplan
March 19th, 2025
Photo Credit: ABC News
The 2025 Super Bowl consisted of many broken records and new initiatives. Advertisements cost the most they’ve ever had, containing both funny and serious commercials. Kendrick Lamar broke the Super Bowl Halftime Show viewership record with his popular music and creative cultural significance. The game itself also broke their record of average audience throughout the game, and the scoreboard consisted of a new, unique look.
With another Super Bowl down, many new commercials were made for the public. Super Bowl LIX consisted of unique, creative ads highlighting the company’s product or service. This year, a Super Bowl ad cost around $8 million for a 30 second time slot. These consisted of some of the most expensive Super Bowl ads in history, as the cost of almost $8 million per advertisement is almost a full million more than the Super Bowl in 2024. This year, we saw 51 minutes of ads, creating just over $800 million in revenue. We saw a variety of advertisements this year, with many highlighting multiple celebrities through different standpoints. Ranging from Tom Brady and Snoop Dogg collaborating, to Budwesier showcasing a horse transporting beer, we truly saw it all this year.
The Kendrick Lamar Apple Halftime Show brought in 133.5 million viewers, making it the most viewers for a Super Bowl halftime show ever. It just beat the previous all time record of Michael Jackson’s performance in 1993, who brought in 133.4 million viewers. The halftime show also brought in more viewers than the game itself did. Kendrick Lamar is a popular artist in today's music industry, who just hit over 100 million listeners a month on Spotify. During the show, a lot of people speculated on the cultural significance and hidden meanings incorporated within his performance, highlighting how America is “a game” through the voice of legendary actor Samuel L. Jackson, who was impersonating Uncle Sam. The game had the meaning of the relationship between America and its citizens. People also debated the concept of race highlighted in the performance, highlighting how Uncle Sam antagonized Kendrick for being “too ghetto.” Lastly, people loved how Kendrick leaned into his beef with Drake, causing social media buzz with his performance of "Not Like Us". The performance was definitely impactful in both a professional and humorous way, creating the most watched halftime show ever.
Not only did the halftime show bring in record breaking attendance, but the game itself also did. Super Bowl LIX drew in an average audience of 127.7 million viewers, which made it the most watched Super Bowl ever. This beats the record previously in 2024, which CBS projected at roughly 120 million viewers. The peak audience was around 137.7 million viewers in the second quarter, with an average of 127.7 million. It raises the question of if the game was more competitive, how much higher the average attendance would be for the whole game. Factors such as teams participating, players involved, the halftime show, ads, and celebrities in attendance contributed to the viewership.
However, with Super Bowl LIX always introducing new products, it does always bring some negatives, one of which being the score bug leaving not many fans happy about. FOX Sports had a new design for the scoreboard. The design relied on boxes and it was a transparent background, showing the field behind it. These effects essentially put the actual score numbers in a box, but without any background. This was a new feature that hasn’t been seen before, catching viewers off guard. Many other fans had funny reactions to the score bug as well. However, it must not have had too much of a negative impact, as this Super Bowl was extremely successful.
Super Bowl LIX was a great accomplishment for the NFL, the fans, Kendrick Lamar, and the advertising companies. The NFL got to see their highest viewership, while Kendrick Lamar got to experience performing at the Super Bowl, an incredible achievement in itself, as the most watched performer ever. The fans were able to witness a great performance by Kendrick, while also experiencing a new champion in the league and some great advertisements.
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