It’s Worse Than We Thought… NFL Lost Nearly Half of Their Audience During Halftime Show!
Bad Bunny in the sugar cane field during his halftime show. Most Americans had never heard of him.
It turns out the halftime viewership shift may have been larger than initially believed.
Early reports showed that Bad Bunny drew a respectable audience for the Super Bowl halftime performance. At the same time, TPUSA’s alternative halftime programming reportedly attracted a significant number of viewers, with claims that more than 25 million people tuned in to its pro-American lineup.
However, new data released by Samba TV suggests a sharper drop in traditional halftime viewership than first reported.
According to Samba TV’s latest analysis, nearly half of the Super Bowl audience did not remain tuned in for the halftime show, which featured Bad Bunny performing entirely in Spanish. The report indicates that the Super Bowl broadcast lost approximately 22.1 million viewers during the halftime entertainment.
Samba TV shared the following insights:
#SuperBowlLX delivered another massive night of television and the data tells an interesting story.
Our latest viewership insights reveal:
📺 48.6M U.S. households tuned in to #SuperBowlLX, representing a 13% decrease from last year’s game
🎵 26.5M U.S. households watched #BadBunny’s #halftime performance, down 39% from Kendrick Lamar’s 2025 showWhile viewership declined year-over-year, the Super Bowl remains one of TV’s most powerful cultural moments, delivering tens of millions of engaged viewers in an increasingly fragmented media landscape.
#SuperBowlLX delivered another massive night of television and the data tells an interesting story.
Our latest viewership insights reveal:
📺 48.6M U.S. households tuned in to #SuperBowl LX, representing a 13% decrease from last year’s game
🎵 26.5M U.S. households watched… pic.twitter.com/TnZ7pIU75H— Samba TV (@samba_tv) February 9, 2026
For brands and marketers, understanding these viewing patterns is essential for maximizing campaign impact and connecting with audiences when they’re most engaged.
More Samba insights from the big game are expected in the coming days.
The data highlights changing viewing habits during one of television’s biggest annual events and raises questions about how audiences are choosing to engage with halftime programming.
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