The Chiefs' wild 38-35 win over the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII has officially become the most-watched telecast in history of the United States with 115.1 milion viewers tuning in for the Feb. 12 game.
When the original viewing numbers for the game were released in February, Nielsen had pegged the total audience at 113 million, which made it the third-most-watched Super Bowl of all time. However, that number has now been adjusted after Nielsen discovered an issue. According to Fox, the modified number came about as "the result of a thorough review by Nielsen that revealed irregularities in the encoding that enables Nielsen's measurement of TV viewing as well as in the measurement of out-of-home viewing."
Apparently, the mistake happened after the NFL noticed that the NFL Network was being given credit for more viewers than it should have on Super Bowl Sunday and that those viewers should have counted toward the Fox total.
"We appreciate the support and collaboration from our partners at Fox and the NFL to correct previously unknown errors to ultimately provide a more accurate measure for this year's total audience for the game," a Nielsen representative said in a statement to the L.A. Times.
Thanks to the adjustment, Super Bowl LVII got a total of 2.1 million viewers added to its total viewership.
The total number of viewers is based upon the number of people who watched or streamed the game. The new total allowed Super Bowl LVII to overtake Super Bowl XLIX as the most-watched show ever in the United State. Before the adjustment, the Patriots' 28-24 win over the Seahawks in February 2014 had held the viewership record with 114.4 million people watching. When it comes to total viewers, Super Bowl LI between the the Patriots and Falcons ranks third all time with 113.7 million people watching, according to ESPN.com.
CBS will have a chance to break the all-time record in February 2024 when it televises Super Bowl LVIII from Las Vegas.
