PHOENIX – An audience of 113 million people tuned in to Fox Corp’s Super Bowl broadcast to watch the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 in a nail-biter, a slight increase from last year.

The audience included both broadcast and online viewers, the network said Monday in an email.

The Chiefs won with a field goal in the final seconds. Last year’s viewers totaled 112.3 million.

The Super Bowl is by far the most-watched TV event of the year, attracting a wide range of advertisers that are willing to pay top dollar to reach its massive live audience. This year’s telecast saw numerous first-time alcohol sponsors, while last year’s newbies, crypto companies, were absent.

Ratings from last year’s Super Bowl – a close game between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals – also included online and broadcast audiences.

In 2015, NBC set the record for most-watched Super Bowl, with 114.4 million viewers seeing the New England Patriots defeat the Seattle Seahawks.

Before Sunday, one Fox executive had predicted this year’s game could break the all-time viewership record, citing the NFL’s strong TV ratings this past season, among other reasons.

Fox, NBC and CBS all reported viewership increases during the regular season. 

Fox Corp. sold out its in-game Super Bowl commercials, with 30-second ads going for over US$6 million (S$8 million) on average, and some exceeding US$7 million, a record. The company expects to generate about $600 million in revenue from the game. BLOOMBERG