Adding Tubi to Super Bowl Lineup Gives Streaming A Trophy In February, Nielsen Says

The ‘SNL’ 50th Anniversary Special (Image courtesy of NBCUniversal)

Super Bowl viewing on Tubi helped boost streaming in February to its highest slice of TV usage since Nielsen began issuing its monthly share reports in May 2021, the ratings company said.

The Eagles’ blowout victory in the big game drew 127.7 million viewers to the Fox telecast, which simultaneously appeared on Fox’s free streaming service Tubi.

While the game was being played, Tubi accounted for one-third of all streaming usage and its audience was 16 times its January 2025 average. Viewers who watched Tubi during the Super Bowl were 38% more likely to be in the 18-34 year-old demo than the game’s overall viewership. The Tubi audience also skewed slightly female, Nielsen said.

The big game boosted Tubi’s usage by 17% from January 2025 and gave it a 2% share of TV watch time for the month.

Super Bowl Sunday produced 100 billion viewing minutes, the second-highest total recorded. The top viewing day was when the Super Bowl aired in 2024, when an additional 500 million minutes of TV were viewed.

Overall, viewing in February was down from January, which NIelsen said reflected normal seasonal variation. With big numbers in January coming from the NFL post season and the expanded College Football Playoff, sports viewing in February was down 54% on broadcast and 42% on cable. .

Streaming had a 43.5% share in February, up from 42.6 in January. Broadcast and cable combined for a 44.4% share in February.

Among the streamers, YouTube usage was up 2.5%, garnering a record 11.6% share of TV viewing. The most viewed show on streaming was The Night Agent on Netflix with 6 billion viewing minutes.

Broadcast’s share was 21.2%, down from 22.5% in January. In addition to the Super Bowl, the Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special on NBC drew 16.5 million viewers. The Grammys on CBS attracted 16.2 million viewers. Dramas had the largest share on broadcast, rising 15% led by two CBS shows, Tracker, with 10.6 million viewers and Matlock with 9.4 million viewers.

Cable’s share was 23.2%, down from 24.4%. The top program on cable was the championship game in the National Hockey League’s new 4 Nations Face Off. The faceoff between Canada and the U.S. drew 9.3 million viewers on ESPN. Programs on Fox News had the next 13 largest audiences in cable for the month

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