Bad Bunny Super Bowl Halftime Show Leads To Massive Decline In Viewership: NEW REPORT

The NFL's decision to book Bad Bunny for the Super Bowl halftime show was almost immediately controversial. And while his performance on Sunday mostly avoided direct political statements, it was widely panned by viewers willing to be honest about his extraordinary lack of vocal talent, explicit choreography, and the fact that his performance was entirely in Spanish. 

Videos from inside the stadium were, to put it mildly, brutal. A mostly bored audience could see an elaborate set of fake bushes that were mostly not visible, and heard "singing" that could be charitably described as bad, and accurately described as "unlistenable."

Somehow, managing to be off-key even without ever actually enunciating or changing keys, the performance was seemingly popular mostly with the online left who made liking music they can't understand a part of their political ideology. Or those who were already part of Bad Bunny's fanbase.

Regardless, the NFL surely hoped that bringing in a Spanish-language performer would lead to a wider US audience than previous years, as Hispanic viewers would ostensibly be more likely to tune in. Well, the ratings are in, and turns out the NFL was wrong.

Lady Gaga performs with Bad Bunny onstage during the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show at Levi's Stadium on February 08, 2026, in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Super Bowl Halftime Ratings Decline From 2025

There are several different ratings now available for the Super Bowl, with one source, Samba TV, purporting to measure the number of households watching the game. Per their tracking, there were 48.6 million households watching Super Bowl LX, which represents a 13% decrease from last year's game. 

According to their estimates, 26.5 million households watched the halftime show, a whopping 39% decline from Kendrick Lamar's halftime performance in 2025.

Additionally, the dip in viewership during the halftime show was clearly visible. To the point where in their analysis, Samba TV pointed out that "Viewership dipped to 88% when Bad Bunny took the stage, with some viewers stepping away during the performance."

Nielsen released their ratings for the Super Bowl Tuesday afternoon as well, also showing a decline from 2025, though far less dramatic. Per an NBC press release, the halftime show had 128.2 million viewers, roughly 5 million fewer than last year. Though even that's misleading, as new measurement systems have led to higher viewership numbers for almost all live events. 

Ultimately, it's impossible to know the exact number of people who turned the halftime show off, or ignored it. It's even hard to get an apples-to-apples comparison between last year and this year. And the NFL doesn't actually care much about US viewership and ratings. Gambling and daily fantasy will always make them the dominant power in domestic sports. The Super Bowl itself is now a cultural event that transcends actual interest in the game, which is mostly confined to the two fanbases anyway. Viewership in Latin America was probably quite high, which is what the NFL wants: to grow the sport in that area and set the stage to move a team to Mexico City. Fans have been upset about how the entire thing was handled, feeling like the league takes their fandom and support for granted. Here's the thing: they absolutely do, and they don't care if people didn't enjoy it.