Super Bowl sees worst viewership since 2009

Matthew Emmons/USA TODAY Sports

There is no mistaking that the Super Bowl is the biggest television event in the United States, bringing in over 100 million viewers annually. While the game still did well in retrospect, it did not fare as well as Super Bowls in the past.

Officially, Super Bowl LII brought in 103.4 million viewers. That is the fewest amount of viewers since Super Bowl XLIII between the Steelers and Cardinals, which had 98.7 viewers in 2009.

With two teams in two of the biggest sports markets lining up against each other, one would have assumed the ratings would be through the roof. The Patriots could have tied the Steelers for the most Super Bowl titles in NFL history with six. Meanwhile, the Eagles were going for their first-ever title and won it.

There are a number of reasons as to why the ratings could have taken a nose dive: those who went through with boycotting the league over the National Anthem protests, streaming services such as Hulu, Sling TV and others, people who just flat-out hate either the Pats or the Eagles or both, and so on.

According to Mike Reiss of ESPN, Buffalo had the highest percentage of viewers with 56.4 of the market watching. Behind them were Philly (56.2), Boston (55.9) and Minnesota, which hosted the game, at 54.9.

Follow me on Twitter - @JesseGaunce

For more of my articles, click here.