Last night’s Super Bowl where the New England Patriots defeated the Seattle Seahawks earned a 49.7/72 overnight household rating/share in Nielsen’s largest 56 markets. Thats up 4% versus last year’s (Denver-Seattle) Super Bowl overnight rating which drew a 47.6 rating in the top 56 markets, and is the highest overnight rating on record for the Super Bowl.
The previous record was 2013’s Ravens-49ers which drew a 48.1 overnight rating.
Last year’s overnight rating was the lowest since 2010, despite winding up as the most-watched Super Bowl of all time, so while it’s risky to make predictions about what the final numbers will be based on the metered market numbers, Super Bowl XLIX certainly looks on track to break more records.
Overnight Super Bowl ratings 2005-2015:
| Year | Network | Teams | Overnight Rating |
| 2015 | NBC | Patriots-Seahawks | 49.7 |
2014 | Fox | Seahawks-Broncos | 47.6 |
2013 | CBS | Ravens-49ers | 48.1 |
2012 | NBC | Giants-Patriots | 47.8 |
2011 | Fox | Packers-Steelers | 47.9 |
2010 | CBS | Saints-Colts | 46.4 |
2009 | NBC | Steelers-Cardinals | 42.1 |
2008 | Fox | Giants-Patriots | 44.7 |
2007 | CBS | Colts-Bears | 42.0 |
2006 | ABC | Steelers-Seahawks | 42.1 |
2005 | Fox | Patriots-Eagles | 43.4 |
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Here’s the list of final household rating and viewership numbers for past Super Bowls.
Overnight household rating = the live+same day DVR overnight metered-market household rating from the top 56 Nielsen television markets. The 56 markets (out of 210 total) account for about 70% of the US TV-viewing population. The overnight household rating is the percentage of the households that were tuned-in in those markets. The share is the percentage of the households that were watching TV at the time.
Example: a 21 household rating with a 40% share means that on average 21% of all the households (in those 56 markets) were tuned-in and that 40% of the households watching TV at the time were tuned-in.