1 of 7 | Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny speaks at the Super Bowl LX halftime show preview Thursday at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
The lack of a dynastic participant and anticipation for Bad Bunny’s halftime show are among viewership sticking points for Super Bowl LX, experts told UPI.
NBC declined to project viewership for Super Bowl LX, which will kick off Sunday at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. Last year’s game averaged 127.7 million viewer on Fox.
That game featured the latest dynasty, with Patrick Mahomes leading the Kansas City Chiefs, who lost to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Super Bowls featured Mahomes and/or Tom Brady or Peyton Manning in 17 of the last 22 years. Brady and Mahomes combined for 10 Lombardi Trophies during that stretch. Their participation, paired with eagerness for fans to watch teams attempt to dethrone those dynasties, helped drive ratings.
It also was something networks craved.
“There is a little bit of knocking off Goliath,” NBC Sports president Rick Cordella told UPI. “Even in college basketball, with the blue bloods, those games are still the best rated. They accumulate fans over time, too.
“People became Kansas City Chiefs fans. The Dallas Cowboys were famously great in the 70s and acquired a bunch of fans they have yet to shed. The Packers and Steelers dynasties and people looking across at these athletes doing phenomenal things over a long period time is probably good for business.”
It remains to be seen if the new version of the Patriots, led by quarterback Drake Maye, or the Seattle Seahawks, powered by an elite defense, can forge a new dynasty. Narratives for this year’s edition of the big game have included framing the duel as a meeting between two coaches with philosophical differences, Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold’s turbulent journey to the promised land and potential political messaging from Bad Bunny.
Cordella also pointed to the “Cinderella story” nature of the Patriots and Seahawks going from low preseason expectations to championship contenders and overall NFL parity.
“I think the NFL has a great product,” Cordella said. “The NFL has found the sweet spot between dynasty and anyone can win. It’s what you see in the ratings and why we had probably the highest rated year ever on Sunday Night Football.”
Results from a recent survey of nearly 7,000 consumers showed 69% of Americans intend to watch this year’s Super Bowl — a 4-point jump in fans compared to those intentions in 2024-25, research from consumer data and technology company Numerator suggests.
That study also showed viewers are slightly more excited to watch commercials (62%) than the game (61%) or halftime show (52%).
The Seahawks are 4.5-point better favorites. The point total is currently set at 45.5 — the lowest of a Super Bowl this decade — for the Seahawks and Patriots, who allowed the respective fewest and fourth-fewest points in the NFL.
Cordella said much has changed since the last time the Seahawks met the Patriots in the Super Bowl 11 years ago.
“I was running NBC Sports Digital at the time, and I vividly remember saying, ‘Oh my God, we hit 500,000 concurrents [views], we are going to break the Internet,” Cordella said. “Now we are doing 500,000 concurrents every Sunday night, if not triple or quadruple.
“Like 12% or 15% of the total consumption of Sunday Night Football was on Peacock. You are getting multiple millions of people every single week on your streaming platform. 10 years ago or so we were shocked at that point. Now, we are waiting to see what happens on Sunday.”
The NFL announced last month that it drew its second-highest regular-season average viewership since 1988, with 18.7 million viewers per game. Part of that boost is tied to the league’s strategy to partner with a variety of networks and platforms, including NBC, ESPN/ABC, CBS, Fox, Netflix, Prime Video and YouTube.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell called the 2025-26 campaign the “most competitive season” of his 44 years in the NFL.
“You just see the excitement of our game,” Goodell said. “Seventy percent of our games were within one score in the fourth quarter. We had seven new division winners, both [Super Bowl teams] are new division winners.”
He also said the league is constantly looking to improve the game from a fan standpoint. Part of that strategy includes the league’s desire to increase its global footprint through international games.
Halftime performer Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican rapper, should also magnetize global interest. Fans are not only expected to tune in to watch him perform, but to also see if he makes any political statements regarding his disapproval of ICE.
Goodell said the rapper “understood the platform,” when asked this week about potential political statements.
“This platform is used to unite people, to be able to bring people together with their creativity and their talents and be able to use this moment to do that,” Goodell said. “Artists in the past have done that. I think Bad Bunny understands that and I think he’ll have a great performance.”
Mark Conrad, the director of the sports business concentration and professor of law and ethics at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business, said a potential political statement from Bad Bunny or in-stadium protest could cause controversy, which he thinks the NFL wants to avoid for the broadcast.
“They don’t want controversy,” Conrad said. “They are going to get the viewership. The question is, do they get the controversy?”
Conrad said the production staff could get directives to not show potential protests on the game broadcast, if possible.
“I suspect NBC may not want to focus on that either, unless it’s so obvious.”
Conrad said he expects a “very good day at the office” for Super Bowl LX viewership, based on previous ratings the backstories of the Seahawks and Patriots.
He also pointed to the role of frigid weather around the country leading people to stay inside to watch the matchup.
When it comes to the actual football game, many expect a classic similar to the last time the two teams met in Super Bowl XLIX, which the Patriots won 28-24 in Glendale, Ariz.
“I think it’s going to be very close,” NBC analyst and former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy said. “I think it’s going to be just like the last New England-Seattle game we had several years ago. I think it’s going to come down to a fourth-quarter drive and one team making a play.
“I haven’t decided who I’m going to pick yet, but I would be shocked if it’s not a three-point game.”
Super Bowl LX will kick off at 3:30 p.m. PST/6:30 p.m. EST Sunday on NBC.
Bad Bunny teases Super Bowl LX halftime show plans
Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny speaks at the Super Bowl LX pregame and Apple Music Halftime Show press conference in the days leading up to Super Bowl LX in San Francisco on February 5, 2026. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
