More than a Game: How Technology is Revolutionizing Super Bowl Sunday

The Super Bowl, which serves as the championship between the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference, is one of the most popular games in all of American sports. The popularity deems the day has its own name: Super Bowl Sunday.?

Since 2009, viewership of the main game has exceeded 100 million, with it reaching 120.25 million for the 2024 game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers. These recent numbers are particularly impressive given the context: Cord-cutting, the practice of canceling a cable subscription, is becoming more prevalent. So the Super Bowl is getting viewers to tune in during an era when they are no longer sitting in front of their couch, huddled in their living room.

While viewership for the main telecast is particularly impressive, there are many other ways that technology enhances fan and audience engagement across Super Bowl Sunday.

Replaying highlights on social media

In Super Bowl LVII, Kadarius Toney of the Kansas City Chiefs made a 65-yard punt return, which was the longest in Super Bowl history to set up a touchdown drive for his team. The highlight was replayed instantly on the telecast as viewers are accustomed to.

Much more impressively, the highlight went social on media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube within minutes. This speed was made possible through various technologies, most notably auto-resizing. Instead of having to wait for editors to manually cut the punt return to the ideal dimensions of different platforms, an AI-powered video editor was able to automatically cut the clip.?

This automation ensured not only efficiency but quality: Every viewer, no matter the social media channel, was able to enjoy the athletic feat in its full glory. The viewers on the go or tracking other channels could “tune in” to the game even when not in front of a television.

Getting commentary from people who are not commentators

With any live sport, people are accustomed to the play-by-play announcer and the color commentator; live descriptions of the on-field action enliven the sport with useful or interesting dialogue.?

Previously, the commentary team was a one-size-fits-all approach. If you watched the main telecast, you had no choice but to stick with this commentary team. This proposition is changing with live streaming: Super Bowl viewers can now watch alongside their favorite influencers or celebrities.

Case in point being Super Bowl 50: Comedians Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele hosted their own livestream of the game. While Key and Peele may not be for everyone, their example highlights the variety that is possible through livestreaming: Super Bowl viewers can finally find their ideal “companions” for the greatest event in all of sports.?

Commercials are reenvisioned for digital

With the Super Bowl, commercials are as famous as the gameplay itself. Brands compete for expensive ad spots that can range as high as US$8 million. Due to the viewership these ads will have, brands usually bring out their best creative - some of the funniest, most eye-catching, or most interesting concepts of the year.

Most ads are still top-down. They get the viewer to react but don’t necessarily inspire immediate action. In recent years, brands have been trying to make ads more interactive with the viewers on their living room couch. For example, crypto exchange Coinbase famously showed an ad built around a bouncing QR code that worked so well it temporarily crashed the app. Similarly, Reddit aired a text block that by virtue of its length - it would only last five seconds - encouraged people to screenshot for easier reading.?

In these examples, technology is acting as an extension: Instead of being confined to the time limitations of the ad spot, brands are finding unique ways to leverage digital tools to prolong user engagement.

What’s next for Super Bowl?

The 2025 Super Bowl pits the Kansas City Chiefs against the Philadelphia Eagles. The game is already poised for record-breaking numbers not only due to the nature of the game (it is a rematch from 2023), but a host of other factors.?

Kendrick Lamar is set to headline the halftime show. It is also a Super Bowl during a stock market bull run, which means brands may have larger production budgets. The biggest factor may be technology: Entertainment brands have an unlimited selection of technology at their fingertips to enhance engagement.

These technologies include not only livestreaming, QR codes, and artificial intelligence, but also the second screen, augmented reality, virtual reality, and even blockchain. The best organization will combine the latest technology with their brand to reach new viewers in ways that - on any day not Super Bowl Sunday - would seem over-the-top, but fit right in with the spectacle of the day.