Younger Americans’ Interest in the Super Bowl Is Down From Last Year

The NFL, Super Bowl LVII broadcaster Fox and sponsoring brands will likely be pleased that most young Americans plan to watch the big game on Feb. 12. But there’s a potential red flag based on new Morning Consult data: Interest in watching the game among U.S. adults ages 18-34 is down 9 percentage points from last year. 

Likelihood of younger consumers tuning in for Super Bowl dips 

• Two-thirds of U.S. adults (66%) said they are either “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to watch the Philadelphia Eagles play the Kansas City Chiefs, down 1 percentage point from last year’s Super Bowl, which saw the Los Angeles Rams defeat the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20.
• Among age groups, adults ages 18-34 saw the largest year-over-year drop in expected viewership: 66% said they plan to watch what pundits are calling the Andy Reid Bowl, compared with 75% who said the same before last year’s championship game.
• One in 4 adults ages 18-34 said they are not likely to watch Super Bowl LVII, a 5-point increase from 20% in 2022. 
• Nearly 7 in 10 adults ages 45-64 (69%) said they’re likely to watch Sunday’s Super Bowl, where the Eagles can win their second Lombardi Trophy since 2018. The age group’s interest marks a 6-point increase from a 2022 survey conducted before the Super Bowl — the biggest year-over-year increase among the groups. 
• Nearly 4 in 5 adults (79%) said they plan to watch the Super Bowl via live TV, while 15% said they plan to use a streaming provider. Both shares were roughly in line with the results of last year’s survey.

Super Bowl viewership 

While the main television broadcasts of the last two Super Bowls both failed to reach 100 million viewers, the NFL’s cultural sporting event consistently ranks as the year’s most-watched show on U.S. TV (The game peaked in 2015, when nearly 115 million watched the New England Patriots defeat the Seattle Seahawks.) And despite the potential drop in viewership among the 18-34 age group as suggested by the Morning Consult survey, the Super Bowl will continue to grab America’s attention with ease. 

The Jan. 31-Feb. 1, 2023, survey was conducted among a representative sample of 2,205 U.S. adults, with an unweighted margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.