New Numbers Show Massive Impact Taylor Swift Had On Female Super Bowl Viewership

Love it, hate it, or anything in between, there’s no denying the power that Taylor Swift has when it comes to drumming up interest.

Combine that with the country’s most-watched sporting event of the year and you end with record-setting Super Bowl television ratings.

Sports Business Journal reports that 47.5 percent of the total audience for Super Bowl 58 was women, setting a new record for the marquee event. The previous high was 47.1 percent for Super Bowl XLIX between the Patriots and Seahawks in 2015.

But the numbers don’t stop there.

Swift helped draw 58.8 million women to the big game. That’s the highest number of all time and a massive 9 percent increase from the same number a year ago.

Ryan Glasspiegel of the New York Post reports that the additional female viewers helped lead to a 7 percent total increase in viewership.

“Swift, who is dating star Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, is perhaps the most famous person on the planet, and it is virtually indisputable that she drove an increase of casual viewers,” Glasspiegel writes.

Introduction Of Taylor Swift Boosts NFL’s Already Crazy Ratings Stranglehold

The NFL is the undisputed king of television in the United States. Ninety-three of the top-100 most-watched television programs in the United States in 2023 were NFL games.

But adding Swift into the mix just stands to make the league’s stranglehold on television programming even tighter.

That refutes earlier comments made by Pro Football Hall of Famer Tony Dungy which suggested that Swift was causing fans to sour on the league.

If that’s the case, those fans are being replaced, and in droves.

But while Swift’s association has been a huge boon for the NFL, it’s not always easy for those associated with her.

Take, for instance, Jason Kelce, the brother of Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce.

“I think it was my first (time) really understanding kind of some of the things that she has to deal with on a lot of bases,” Kelce said of being in a suite with Swift during the Super Bowl. “Because there are so many star-studded people there where it’s like ‘dude, everybody wants to come see her’ but the suite is only so big. And it was overwhelming to be honest with you. It was very overwhelming.”

Swift has somehow mastered the art of handling life as a megastar. And the NFL will be happy to keep her around for as long as possible.