Sunday night's broadcast of a dramatic Super Bowl registered the highest ratings in US TV history, according to early figures.
The game between San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs went down to the wire, with overtime required to separate the two sides - for only the second time in Super Bowl history - as Patrick Mahomes's Chiefs took the victory.
Overnight figures suggest that 123.4 million viewers watched the game on CBS (120m), NFL Network, Nickelodeon and Paramount+, in part helped by the draw of Travis Kelce's music superstar girlfriend Taylor Swift, whose continued presence has boosted audiences for the league overall this season.
Around 202.4 million viewers watched the game at some point across linear or streaming during its run-time, itself unprecedented and up 10% year-on-year.
The average figure of 123.4m usurps last year's Super Bowl (115.1m) as the most-watched US TV broadcast of all time, although that number is expected to rise once figures are finalised.
The Apollo 11 moon landing in July 1969 is widely believed to be the most-watched broadcast ever, with an estimated audience of between 125m and 150m, although the exact figure is unknown so it remains an unofficial record.
Neil Wilkes
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