Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime performance the most-watched in history

- by Barbados Today May 2, 2023

(Billboard) – Rihanna‘s Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show is officially the most-watched halftime show performance of all time, according to an adjusted Nielsen report Tuesday (May 2).

The live performance — her first in more than five years — attracted 121.017 million viewers during the Feb. 12-dated broadcast. Nielsen’s revised report regarding Super Bowl LVII between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles also makes this year’s big game the most-watched Super Bowl in history.

According to the Associated Press, Nielsen revised this year’s original figure of 113.1 million by 2 million “after a review that revealed encoding irregularities as well as issues with out-of-home measurement.” The new 115.1 million figure breaks the record that was previously set by the 2015 Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, which had 114.442 million viewers (not including streaming).

This year’s figure also surpassed that of the 2017 Super Bowl between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots (113.668 million), which previously held the most-watched record out of Fox Sports’ 10 Super Bowl broadcasts.

During RiRi’s now history-making performance at Glendale, Ariz.’s State Farm Stadium, she not only revealed she was pregnant with her and partner A$AP Rocky‘s second child, but she also performed her Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits like “Only Girl (in the World),” “We Found Love,” “S&M,” “Rude Boy,” “Work” and more.

Ahead of her big night, Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty lingerie and clothing brand sold “Rihanna concert interrupted by a football game, weird but whatever” T-shirts as part of its game day collection. And considering millions more people tuned into her “concert” than the game, there’s truth to that slogan.