Seton Hall Sports Poll: Viewership Insights from the 2025 Super Bowl
Hadlee Ackerman
Staff Writer
As forecasted by the Seton Hall Sports Poll, the 2025 Super Bowl was the most popular one yet. From Kendrick and SZA, to Taylor Swift and friends cheering on Travis Kelce, to the Mahomes’ growing family, and the attendance of a U.S. President, this Super Bowl involved some of America’s most newsworthy and famous pop culture celebrities, families, and rivalries. The SHSP has recently posted their second press release of 2025. In the wake of the 2025 Super Bowl, there were many questions asked of the general population about viewing habits, streaming services, and a potential entertainment vacancy occurring in the next couple of months as NFL Football came to a thrilling close.
Compared to last year’s data, specific demographics such as NFL fans, Avid Fans and Younger Fans heavily embraced streaming platforms to view the 2025 Super Bowl. A quarter of Americans streamed the Eagles’ dominant Super Bowl win over the Chiefs. According to respondents of the Sports Poll, four out of five of subscribers will keep their subscriptions. “It is apparent that the streaming evolution is now manifest in the country’s most popular sport,” said Charles Grantham, Director of the Center for Sport Management in the Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University. The 2025 Super Bowl was the most popular NFL Final of all time, and this record-breaking viewership also delivered a major boost to streaming platform subscriptions.
The streaming trend studied by SHSP in this release includes fans’ wider viewing habits, in terms of how much of the Super Bowl they actually watched. Nearly two-thirds of Avid Fans and 58% of NFL Fans reported watching the entire game, contrary to the belief that full-game viewership is declining. Meanwhile, the 18-34 age subgroup relied on social media to stay updated, watching live-streamed highlights of the game’s most impressive moments.
“While the dominant narrative is that full game viewership is passe, our data shows otherwise,” said Dr. Daniel Ladik, Marketing Professor in the Stillman School of Business and Methodologist for the Poll. “Most Americans and all subgroups tracked in the Poll prefer to watch their favorite team’s game in its entirety, by a 2 to 1 margin, compared to just following on social media or seeing highlights on TV.” Other research of ours found that fans watched the Super Bowl in various ways. 18% of respondents gathered at restaurants and sports bars for the game, while others streamed on different platforms and tuned in just for the game’s final, decisive moments.
What now? The Philadelphia Eagles’ celebratory parade has come and gone, and Super Bowl excitement fades from view. With the Super Bowl excitement fading, viewers face the risk of entering a ‘sports desert’—a lull in entertainment before MLB Opening Day. The great thing about sports is that there are always more competitive and exciting games to tune into. SHSP found that 7-22% of the general population will turn to five professional soccer leagues, 34% of NFL Fans eagerly anticipated the NBA All-Star Weekend, and many will follow along with Men’s and Women’s March Madness Basketball. It seems we might narrowly avoid the ‘sports desert’ after all.
As the 2025 Super Bowl’s viewership numbers reflect a shift toward streaming, it’s clear that the way Americans consume sports is evolving. While the post-Super Bowl period often brings an intermission, the data suggests fans are finding alternative ways to stay engaged with their favorite sports. Whether it’s through soccer leagues, NBA events, or March Madness, viewers are looking to fill the gap left by NFL football. It seems the “sports desert” will be a lot less barren than initially anticipated, as the appetite for live sports remains as strong as ever.
The Seton Hall Sports Poll has already begun researching the next couple of months’ most riveting sporting news, so stay tuned for upcoming trends, fan behaviors, and insights into how viewers are engaging with the latest sports events.
Contact Hadlee at hadlee.ackerman@student.shu.edu