Dr. Dre’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Viewership Soars To 29 Million Households

With a surge of star power that spanned generations, Sunday night’s Super Bowl halftime show delivered super numbers. Viewership rose over last year’s numbers for the program featuring a who’s who of rap and hip-hop legends.

According to Samba TV, which has an addressable footprint of 46 million opted-in devices in the United States, 29 million U.S. households watched the halftime show. That was a jump of 19% over last year, when the Weeknd served as the headliner.

“The powerhouse performances from Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and 50 Cent rocked the ratings on Sunday night, shattering last year’s half time audience drawing in millions of more viewers across both linear television and streaming,” said Cole Strain, head of measurement at Samba TV, in a statement.

Most notably, the audience that tuned in specifically to watch the Super Bowl halftime show was way up over last year. Samba found that the number of households who tuned in at halftime and then clicked away before the third quarter started rose 60% from 2021.

That reflects the broad appeal of this year’s halftime performers, representing acts popular in the ‘80s, ‘90s and early to late 2000s. The proteges of Dr. Dre build on his social justice messages through the years. And Blige showcased her unmatched vocals amid the rap, including from surprise guest 50 Cent, who swung down from the ceiling of the intricate set and inspired a wave of memes.

NBC, which aired the big game, got some added value from the popularity of the Super Bowl LVI halftime show. “The halftime hype drew in millions of new viewers who came to watch the performances but who also stayed for the second half,” Strain said. “The number of households who started watching during the halftime show and stayed for the second half kickoff were up 41% year over year. No matter how you look at it, the halftime show scored big for the NFL.”

The halftime show has proven incredibly popular online, too. The nearly 15-minute video of the event had been viewed more than 20.6 million times on YouTube by midday on Monday, generating more than 75,000 comments.

It also trended all over social media, where annually people debate what the best halftime show ever is. NBC hyped this one as such before it aired, though there’s really no easy way to answer that question. If you go by viewership, the games that have the highest viewership often spark the biggest halftime crowds.

The 2015 show with Katy Perry and the 2017 show with Lady Gaga generated two of the biggest crowds ever.

The goodwill of a great Super Bowl halftime performance can carry over from ratings to album sales. Many artists see a massive bump in sales after participating in the show, and Blige could benefit a good deal, as she currently has a single out.