The Super Bowl LX halftime show, featuring Bad Bunny, has quickly become a major talking point. Initial reports show it may have broken viewership records, potentially reaching over 135 million viewers. This would make it one of the most-watched halftime shows ever, solidifying the event’s place as a significant cultural moment.
Like many discussions about ratings today, understanding how those numbers are actually calculated reveals a surprisingly complex situation.
Competing Ratings Narratives
TV ratings predictions, usually based on Nielsen measurements, try to figure out how many people watched a program in total, across all devices and platforms.
That includes:
- Traditional broadcast television
- Streaming platforms
- Mobile devices
- Out-of-home viewing (bars, parties, public venues)
- Co-viewing audiences
The Bad Bunny halftime show seems to have been a huge success, extending the Super Bowl’s position as the most-watched TV event in the United States.
But Samba TV, an independent data company, tracks viewing habits in a different way and presents a much less optimistic result.
Rather than estimate overall viewership, Samba measures actual TV households using technology that identifies what’s currently playing on television screens, providing real-time data without relying on estimates.
That methodological divide is where the ratings narrative begins to split.
A Three-Year Household Slide
According to data from Samba TV, viewership numbers for the Super Bowl halftime show have decreased over the past three years when looking at the same measurements each time.
#SuperBowlLX delivered another massive night of television and the data tells an interesting story.
Recent data shows that 48.6 million U.S. households watched Super Bowl LX, which is 13% fewer than watched last year’s game. Additionally, 26.5 million U.S. households tuned in to watch…
— Samba TV (@samba_tv) February 9, 2026
According to Samba’s household measurement:
- 2024 — Usher: 30.1 million households
- 2025 — Kendrick Lamar: 28.8 million households
- 2026 — Bad Bunny: 26.5 million households
This means about 3.6 million fewer households watched the halftime show over the past three years, which is a 12% decrease in viewers at home.
While national projections highlight growth, the smart-TV dataset suggests erosion.
Usher’s Super Bowl halftime show was a big success with viewers. Over 30 million US households tuned in to see highlights like Alicia Keys’ appearance, and nostalgic performances from Ludacris and Lil Jon that many millennials enjoyed. And who could forget the incredible skating? While Justin Bieber didn’t make an appearance, the show was still a hit!
— Samba TV (@samba_tv) February 12, 2024
Both can technically be true — but they tell very different stories about audience behavior.
The Halftime Retention Gap
Samba’s broader Super Bowl LX data adds another layer to the conversation.
Within the same smart-TV measurement ecosystem:
- 48.6 million households watched the game overall
- 26.5 million households remained for halftime
That implies more than 22 million households tuned out before or during the halftime performance.
Viewers are tuning out from traditional TV in various ways – they’re switching to other platforms, watching on phones and tablets, or just losing interest altogether. This leads to a major drop in viewership when looking only at numbers from television sets.
Samba vs. Nielsen: Screens vs. People
To make sense of the arguments about halftime ratings, it’s important to know how different groups measure success.
Samba TV measures:
- In-home smart TV screens
- Streaming via connected television apps
It does not measure:
- Phones or tablets
- Laptops
- Out-of-home viewing
- Group co-viewing environments
Nielsen-modeled projections attempt to estimate:
- Total people watching
- Cross-platform reach
- Public venue audiences
In simple terms: Samba directly measures screens while Nielsen estimates people.
The Bigger Media Framing Question
Which dataset gets amplified often shapes the public narrative.
Impressive growth numbers often grab attention and suggest widespread popularity. However, decreasing viewership numbers also spark concerns about how well content is holding people’s attention. While both of these metrics are based on reliable data, they tell us different things about how audiences are behaving.
And depending on which metric is spotlighted, the halftime story shifts dramatically.
Looking at smart TV usage over the past few years, we’ve seen a consistent decline: from 30.1 million to 28.8 million and then to 26.5 million.
Despite growing overall viewership across all platforms, we’ve seen a consistent decline in viewers who stay tuned during halftime within the traditional TV viewing experience over the past several years.
With so many different ways to watch and consume media now, it’s not just about how many people are watching something. It’s about which viewership numbers companies choose to highlight – and which they downplay.
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2026-02-10 19:07