Super Bowl slump? America's interest focused on one thing as ticket prices fall
Maybe the third time isn't a charm for America's audiences as they prepare to watch the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes go for their third consecutive Super Bowl win?
From ticket prices to online interest in the game and Taylor Swift, the numbers for Super Bowl 59 on Sunday are trending down. The only thing that seems to be generating more anticipation than last year: the commercials.
Gametime, a site for last-minute tickets, reported Thursday that its lowest-priced tickets to get into the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans have fallen about 45% since Friday. That said, they're still not cheap at $3,491, including taxes and fees. That figure is well below $8,764, which similar tickets were priced at just before Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas.
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How Super Bowl ticket prices have declined in recent days
Ticket reseller StubHub sees a similar trend. The average ticket price is down 16% from last year and hundreds of dollars less than just a week ago. Some football fans are taking advantage: StubHub says the number of tickets sold has risen 12% from last year.
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Perhaps a pullback from last season could have been expected when Taylor Swift's star power combined with America's biggest sporting event in Las Vegas. CBS reported that across all platforms 202.4 million people watched all or part of Super Bowl 58, which ended with Swift kissing her boyfriend, the Chiefs Travis Kelce.
Interest wanes in the Super Bowl this season
From all reports, viewers can expect to see Swift at Super Bowl 59 this year, too, but maybe the novelty of her relationship with Kelce is wearing off. Of course, the run-up to last year's game also included the added drama of Swift's long flight from Tokyo.
Zeta Global (ZETA), an AI-powered marketing cloud, uncovers trends by monitoring trillions of bits of information created by more than 245 million U.S. consumers. They predicted last year that viewership could hit record levels – driven partially by the Swift Effect.
This year, overall interest in the Super Bowl is down 14%, Zeta has found. A few of the trends they're seeing based on our online interactions:
Searches for 'Super Bowl' decline from 2024
Just a basic look at searches in the word "Super Bowl" on Google suggests interest is down. Not unsurprisingly, Super Bowl searches jump each year as the game nears, but they were down more than 25% last week compared to the same time last year.
In the chart below, Google sets the week or month with the highest search volume at 100, and shows how other weeks or months compare. Super Bowl 58 topped all previous Super Bowls for searches.
How much a Super Bowl commercial costs this year
The viewing audience may end up being smaller this year, but there is good news for advertisers who are spending millions of dollars to air their commercials during the game.
A 30-second ad during FOX's 6:30 p.m. ET broadcast reportedly costs between $7 million and $8 million this year. Zeta Global says it has seen a 192% jump in interest for Super Bowl 59's commercials. And that's on top of the sizable 59% jump in interest from February 2023 that Zeta measured ahead Super Bowl 58.
Rate this years' commercials on USA TODAY's Ad Meter
A few dozen of this year's commercials have already been released to USA TODAY's Ad Meter. Click here to view and rate the commercials.
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