Super Bowl 2023 Had Its Highest Viewership in Six Years

The Super Bowl averaged an impressive 113 million viewers on Sunday (Feb. 12), a one percent increase in comparison to last year’s big game and the broadcast’s greatest viewership in six years.

About 106 million of the viewers watched the game on Fox and a Spanish-language feed on Fox Deportes, while the remainder opted for Fox and NFL digital platforms, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

As expected, viewing peaked during Rihanna‘s halftime performance, which averaged 118.7 million viewers, making it the second-most-watched halftime show on record behind Katy Perry’s 2015 performance.

During her 12-minute show, RiRi was dressed in a curve-hugging red outfit, surprising fans with a pregnant belly during the airborne performance at the State Farm Arena in Glendale, Arizona, where she treated viewers to a medley of some of her biggest hits.

The new baby will have a big sibling, as Rihanna just welcomed her first child with A$AP Rocky in May. “When I first got the call to do it again this year, I was like, [hisses] ‘You sure?’ I’m three months postpartum,” RiRi previously said about accepting the Super Bowl gig, during an Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show press conference earlier in the week. “Should I be making major decisions like this right now? I might regret this. But when you become a mom, there’s something that just happens where you feel like you can take on the world. The Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world, so as scary as that was because I haven’t been on stage in seven years, there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all … It’s important for my son to see that.”