The Taylor Swift Effect?
No Super Bowl has attracted more spectators
Taylor Swift hugged her Chiefs hero and boyfriend Travis Kelce after winning the Super Bowl.
© IMAGO/UPI Photo
Super Bowl and Taylor Swift: There was obviously no getting around this combination when you look at the new ratings record.
The Super Bowl represents a sporting superlative year after year. The 58th edition of the National Football League (NFL) final last Sunday apparently once again surpassed everything that has come before: CBS and the NFL reported that 123.4 million people tuned in to the channel’s broadcast – a new record for the Super Bowl. With additional streams, the number of viewers even rose to over 200 million at times.
According to “TMZ Sports” the previous best value was maintained the previous year’s Super Bowl, which was played between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs. Back then, 115.1 million people watched as the Chiefs narrowly prevailed, as they did this year. However, the fact that the US audience rating increased so significantly could have been due to a star who was not even on the field.
Did a lot of “Swifties” also tune in?
The US media assumes that a large number of additional viewers may not have tuned in primarily because of the football game. Instead, it can be assumed that pop superstar Taylor Swift served as another ratings magnet: The singer has been dating Chiefs player Travis Kelce for some time and, like recently, was busy cheering from the stands at regular games.
The fact that Swift stole the show somewhat was demonstrated by some prominent congratulations after the final whistle. Both British tennis star Andy Murray (36) and former first lady Hillary Clinton (76) did not directly mention a player in their subsequent tweets, but rather the famous singer.
After the Super Bowl triumph, Murray wrote on X (formerly Twitter) – with a wink of course: “Congratulations to Taylor Swift on winning Super Bowl 58. A breathtaking achievement.” Clinton at least still had the idea of integrating the actual triumphant into her X-Post. “Congratulations to Taylor’s friend – and the entire Kansas City community.”