Last weekend, the NFL’s championship game and one of the largest entertainment events in North America, Super Bowl LX, took over Santa Clara in February 2026. Hosted at Levi’s Stadium, the home of the San Francisco 49ers, the Super Bowl commanded massive attention across traditional television, digital platforms, and in-person attendance, reinforcing its status as a cross-media spectacle that extends far beyond American football.
While the NFL’s primary broadcast remains anchored in linear television, livestreaming has become an increasingly visible layer of Super Bowl coverage. As with recent editions, Super Bowl LX was not expected to have a free global official livestream of the game itself. Instead, audience engagement on platforms like YouTube Live, Twitch, and Kick were driven by watch parties without official game footage, live commentary and reactions, IRL streams from the host city, and other coverage surrounding the spectacle.
In 2025, Super Bowl-related livestreams generated millions of Hours Watched, outperforming several major entertainment events. With creator ecosystems continuing to scale in 2026, Super Bowl LX was positioned to meet or exceed those benchmarks. Streams Charts breaks down the viewership results for the 2026 Super Bowl across YouTube, Twitch, Kick, and more.
Super Bowl LX livestreaming viewership comparison
The Super Bowl LX continued to demonstrate the event’s unmatched reach, drawing in millions of Hours Watched and being covered by thousands of livestreaming channels. On top of the event’s wild success on traditional broadcast media like television, it was one of the most-discussed and followed events in livestreaming for early 2026. The Halftime Show was particularly popular, attracting millions of viewers across the globe for the headline act Bad Bunny.
Also in the news, the All-American Halftime Show was announced as an alternative to the official Super Bowl LX Halftime Show. Attention around the event has been polarizing, but it nevertheless achieved a strong result in livestreaming. Turning Point USA received over 4.86M Peak Viewers on YouTube for their official stream of the show, and featuring some other co-streams and reaction broadcasts, it accumulated millions of Hours Watched in its short, hour-long broadcast.
Both of these events were significantly more popular than the 68th Grammy Awards, which recently took place. The music awards were covered by plenty of reaction streams and IRL broadcasts throughout the awards, which generated over 1M HW for the 68th annual show. Sporting events such as the Super Bowl reached a much wider audience in livestreaming, with far many more streamers mentioning the event in their title or discussing it in their chats.
Super Bowl LX chat mention comparisons
Speaking of chat mentions, engagement around the Super Bowl LX surged throughout the weekend. Chat mentions and real-time commentary spiked during key moments such as kickoff, pivotal plays, and especially the Halftime Show, where Bad Bunny’s performance, surprise guest appearances, and featured brands became central topics across Twitch, YouTube Live, and Kick.
Comparing the official Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show to Turning Point USA’s All-American Halftime Show, the official event featuring Bad Bunny generated significantly more discussion and traffic than Kid Rock’s show. The All-American show was also scrutinized for Kid Rock’s performance, which some felt featured obvious lip-syncing; this public discourse only added to the attention for the show, but it nevertheless remained a large step behind Bad Bunny’s show.
In terms of brands that featured during adverts at the Super Bowl LX, many advertisements went viral for their catchy messaging or celebrity appearances. Competing chips brands Pringles and Lay’s both invested in slots at the sporting event, but Lay’s came out slightly ahead in terms of livestreaming chat engagement. Food delivery options Uber Eats and GrubHub also made appearances, although the former app received significantly more attention.
Super Bowl LX most popular channels
High-profile creators — such as Luis “WestCol” Villa — have become a core component of the Super Bowl’s digital coverage. In recent editions, top influencers consistently supported the Super Bowl through watch parties and reaction content, and this year was no different. Sports media brands and news outlets also have leaned heavily into livestreaming, particularly for audiences which traditionally would not follow the Super Bowl, such as those from Brazil watching ge tv or Spanish-speakers with Carrusel Deportivo
Much of the reactionary content online also focused on the halftime show, rather than the sports showdown itself. Both organizational channels and traditional streamers received strong peak viewerships for their reaction to the halftime show. However, sporting channels like Football Nation also received strong viewerships focusing on the sport itself, providing radio style broadcasts for the match.
While traditional TV continues to deliver record-breaking reach, the growth of livestreaming around the Super Bowl highlights how digital platforms now function as essential amplification layers, particularly for younger viewers and international audiences. With the NFL having celebrated its 60th Super Bowl, the event’s ability to dominate both legacy and emerging media channels once again demonstrates why the Super Bowl remains unmatched in global sports entertainment.
