Super Bowl viewership dropped sharply during Bad Bunny’s halftime performance, according to newly released quarter-hour Nielsen ratings, underscoring backlash from conservative audiences who had criticized the show’s cultural and political tone before kickoff.
Viewership peaked at 137.9 million between 7:45 and 7:59 p.m. ET, including 134.3 million watching on NBC and 3.6 million on Telemundo.
The audience slipped slightly to 135.9 million in the next quarter-hour.
But during the 8:15 to 8:29 p.m. ET window, covering Bad Bunny’s halftime set, viewership plunged to 128.2 million, including 123.4 million on NBC and 4.8 million on Telemundo.
The decline marked a 7% drop from the game’s second-quarter peak and a 5.7% fall from the immediately preceding quarter-hour, signaling a clear audience retreat during the performance.
Spanish-Language Set Coincides with Audience Shift
Bad Bunny performed his halftime show entirely in Spanish.
While overall viewership declined, Telemundo’s audience rose from 3.8 million viewers in the prior quarter-hour to 4.8 million during the performance, indicating a shift rather than growth in total viewers.
Super Bowl audiences have historically expanded into halftime, though last year’s performance by Kendrick Lamar also saw a smaller ratings dip of roughly 4% compared to the end of the second quarter.
Despite Bad Bunny’s global popularity, often compared with artists like Taylor Swift in streaming and touring reach, his selection drew sustained criticism from conservatives ahead of the game.
Commenting on the ratings data, Outkick founder Clay Travis described the viewer plunge as “a disaster for the NFL.”
Bad Bunny lost the most viewership from the second quarter to a halftime performance in the history of the Super Bowl. (Halftime viewership typically grows, he lost ten million viewers on NBC). This is a disaster for the NFL, but most left wing sports media won’t cover it.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) February 11, 2026
Trump and Conservatives Push Back
President Donald Trump publicly criticized the NFL for booking the Puerto Rican artist, while Turning Point USA organized an alternative halftime broadcast headlined by Kid Rock.
Organizers said the livestream peaked at more than five million concurrent viewers across YouTube and Rumble, a figure that does not include multiple viewers watching together on single screens, suggesting significant conservative interest in a competing entertainment option.
The official halftime show was coordinated by Apple, Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, and the NFL.
Blowout Game and Social Media Surge
Game conditions may also have contributed to the ratings drop.
Both this year’s Super Bowl and last year’s featured two-score leads at halftime, and audiences typically remain more engaged when the score is close.
Even so, the NFL claimed Bad Bunny’s performance generated more than four billion social media views within 24 hours, highlighting a divide between online engagement and live television retention.
Super Bowl LX ultimately averaged 124.9 million viewers, making it the second-most-watched Super Bowl on record, though down 2% from the previous year.
The game’s peak audience still reached an all-time high, despite the halftime flop.
The halftime ratings slide, however, points to a growing cultural split, where performances tailored to progressive or global audiences risk alienating the traditional American viewers who built the Super Bowl into the nation’s most-watched event.
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