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The whole key to understanding what happened to Super Bowl viewing this year is to look at the number of viewers per home.
The average number of Super Bowl viewers per home was down -13% this year, clearly indicating a decline in group viewing and parties.
This statistic normalizes for out-of-home viewing as it’s based on a custom analysis of FOX’s 2020 viewership *with* out-of-home.
While viewers per home were down -13%, the number of homes tuning in to CBS was down only -8% which is significant because *every other factor* that could have impacted viewing is reflected in the number of household impressions.
This leads to a conclusion that the biggest factor by far in this year’s overall decline was the decline in group viewing and parties. Bigger than the score of the game, the halftime act, weather or anything else.
The Super Bowl (and really big-event sports TV in general) is all about bringing people together. What happened to viewership this year? Fewer people got together.
If you believe that the decline of Super Bowl parties was unique to this year - and why wouldn’t it be? - you have to believe that this year’s viewership is not predictive of future Super Bowls.
I’d bet on Super Bowl viewing being up next year regardless of matchup or score of the game.
