Super Bowl 2026 in Canada: Audience Reach, Viewing Trends, and Top Advertisers

The Seattle Seahawks are Super Bowl Champions after defeating the New England Patriots on Sunday by a score of 29-13. This was a defensive oriented game that played well into Seattle's strengths, and they were able to limit the offensive attempts by a young Patriots quarterback. The win was the second Championship by Seattle who last won in 2013. Seattle also played New England in the 2015 Super Bowl but lost to the Tom Brady-led team in a tight battle that came down to the final minutes. If redemption was on their mind heading into this rematch, they added an exclamation point with their dominance throughout the game. Seattle never trailed and consistently built up their lead throughout the game by setting a field goal record of 5 within the Super Bowl.

Some of the most famous ads first aired during the Super Bowl including these listed here by Business Insider.

Our annual Hot Topic report uncovers the most detail on the Super Bowl including: 

• total viewing trends with average minute audience by station
• viewing by demographic, regions and markets
• minute-by-minute analysis
• commercial trends by category and top brands advertising in the game 

Clients with a TV Meter subscription can either access this report through the Lens platform or contact us directly.

Highlights for Super Bowl LX 2026

There were a couple big differences during this year's game compared to previous years. First was the absence of the Kansas City Chiefs and their high-profile stars, including Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. The second is a little global sporting event you might have heard of called the Olympics. The nice thing was that with the time difference in Italy, all the live Olympic events for the day were done prior to the start of the Super Bowl. Let's take a look at some of the numbers from the game.

At first glance, it may appear this year’s Super Bowl drew a smaller audience, but the data tells a different story. The Super Bowl consistently attracts a broad audience—NFL fans, casual viewers, and non‑fans alike—regardless of teams or halftime performers. Year over year, reach remained relatively stable, with this year delivering a cumulative reach of nearly 16 million Canadians tuning in at some point. While reach has been fairly consistent year over year, time spent fluctuates based on game competitiveness: closer scores keep audiences engaged longer, while lopsided scores lead viewers to sample other content—a well‑known dynamic across live sports.

Super Bowl audience analysis highlights

Game specific stats were fairly consistent year over year.

• This year's Super Bowl audience composition was 55% male, 45% female and evenly distributed across the age segments of 2-17 (16%), 18-34 (20%), 35-49 (19%), 50-64 (23%) and 65+ (22%).
  
  
• The game lasted approximately 4 hours, and the audience was prepared with 83% staying at home to watch in the comfort and warmth of their homes.
  
  
• The largest audience of the game came during Bad Bunny's half time performance; this isn't unusual as the half time show is generally the most viewed part of the game.
  
  
• The half-time show peaked at 8:23pm with over 8.3 million Canadians tuning into the English broadcast on CTV and TSN. RDS+ peaked around the same time at 8:26pm with around 1.4 million tuning in.
  
  
• Bad Bunny’s half-time performance, and all the hype surrounding it, had an average audience of 7.7 million people, up approximately 4% compared to last year’s half-time show by Kendrick Lamar.
  
  

The minute-by-minute analysis, included in our dashboard report, is a great way to see how the audience shifts through the game. You can hover over the chart to see audiences at key times of the game including each field goal and touch down.

Advertising Highlights

This year’s top Super Bowl advertisers, based on GRPs, showcased a balance of broad‑reach brand building and practical, everyday messaging. Retail, food/beverage travel, fitness, financial, and health brands dominated the top creative, reflecting the event’s ability to reach a wide, multi‑generational audience. Canadian brands featured strongly, reinforcing the Super Bowl’s value as a platform for national storytelling at scale.

Top 10 Advertisers (English)

Top 10 Advertisers (French)