Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl LX halftime show, which fans have been affectionately dubbing as the “Benito Bowl”, averaged 128.2 million viewers on Sunday, according to Nielsen.
That figure for Benito’s halftime show tops the game’s overall average U.S. audience of 124.9 million, and is the second-most-watched halftime show of the 21st century, only falling short of the 133.5 million viewers who tuned in for Kendrick Lamar’s record-setting performance last year.
Meanwhile, Conservative organization Turning Point USA staged its own competing “All American Halftime Show” headlined by Kid Rock on YouTube for viewers who preferred a MAGA-first alternative.
Turning Point’s livestream peaked at 6.1 million concurrent viewers, meaning that Bad Bunny outdid the alternative show by roughly 122 million viewers, or about 95% more audience share. Put another way: for every person watching the Turning Point stream, roughly 21 people were watching Bad Bunny.
Turning Point’s alternative show has since reached 21 million total views, still a fraction of the halftime show’s reach, which has also amassed an additional 67 million views on YouTube.
According to Ripple Analytics, total social consumption tied to the halftime show — spanning fan accounts, NFL platforms, broadcast partners and influencers — exploded to four billion views within 24 hours, a 137% jump over last year.
In fact, the NFL’s three most-viewed social posts of all time now are from Bad Bunny’s performance. A clip captioned “Only Thing More Powerful Than Hate Is Love” racked up 179 million Instagram views, becoming the league’s most-watched social video ever. Close behind was Bad Bunny listing countries across the Americas before slamming a football, which drew over 168 million views on Instagram and another 100 million on TikTok.
Bad Bunny has also gotten an enormous boost on streaming, with Apple Music reporting a sevenfold increase in the artists’s streams, following the performance, led by “DtMF,” “BAILE INoLVIDABLE,” and “Tití Me Preguntó.”
The NFL also noted that more than half of its social views originated from international markets, suggesting the figure could climb significantly once global viewership figures are finalized.
Top 5 Most-Watched Super Bowl Halftime Shows of All Time:
Kendrick Lamar – Super Bowl LIX (2025) — 133.5 million viewers Michael Jackson – Super Bowl XXVII (1993) — 133.4 million viewers Bad Bunny – Super Bowl LX (2026) — 128.2 million viewers Usher – Super Bowl LVIII (2024) — 123.4 million viewers Rihanna – Super Bowl LVII (2023) — 121 million viewers
A lot has been made by right-wing and republican outrage farms about the artist’s Super Bowl performance for months, but the outspoken celebration of his Puerto Rican identity, love, and America won the Super Bowl on Sunday night. More than nine out of every ten viewers chose the American one over the All-American lip syncing.
KinshasaPR on February 12nd, 2026 at 14:30 UTC »
As a Puerto Rican who's not a hardcore consumer of his content, what makes his success story so special is that he came into the reggaeton/trap scene with a style and aesthetic completely different to what was common to that scene.
His latest album is the only one I've listened to in its entirety and felt it was a real departure from his usual style and was a genuine effort to represent many aspects of Puerto Rican and Latin culture.
statuskills on February 12nd, 2026 at 14:08 UTC »
Weird headline.
I was expecting them to talk about the grocery bagger angle at least a little bit. As far as I can tell they don’t even mention it. Like, was he bagging groceries as an adult and then his music popped off? Or was he, like most people, doing a menial job as a teen?
Mortis_XII on February 12nd, 2026 at 13:58 UTC »
Although i’m not a fan of that music, seeing how many people it made both furious and happy means the show was a success. Good job bunny