For the past several years, every Super Bowl–regardless of the teams involved–has set a broadcast television ratings record in the United States.
Granted, many of those games have featured marquee teams, but the fact rang true even for the 2009 game that saw the low-profile Arizona Cardinals take on the Pittsburgh Steelers.
America’s interest in football–particularly come playoff season–has been irrefutably on the rise, and if data from the overnight metered market ratings holds up, that streak will last another year.
CBS reports that Sunday’s game between the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens drew a 48.1/71 overnight rating, which would be the highest of all-time. Demographic and viewer data is not yet available to confirm a record on those metrics.
Excluded from the rating is the 8:45-9:15 portion, during which an arena power outage delayed the game. That portion averaged a 46.5 rating, making it the least-watched segment since the 7-7:30PM portion (46.3).
The game peaked, predictably, for the ending between 10:30 and 10:45, drawing a 52.9/75 rating.
According to CBS, top markets included:
1. Baltimore 59.6/83
2. New Orleans 57.1/77
3. Washington, DC 56.9/80
4. Norfolk 55.8/76
5. Dayton 54.6/72
6. Columbus, OH 54.3/73
7. Indianapolis 54.2/76
8. Richmond-Petersburg 53.7/74
9. Milwaukee 53.4/73
10. Jacksonville 53.3/70
