China and the Super Bowl: Why 2024's Game Could Boast the Highest Chinese Viewership Yet

Fans gather for what may become the most-viewed Super Bowl of all time.

Although country-specific broadcasting numbers are yet to be released for the 2024 Super Bowl, Chinese viewership of the event has grown steadily in recent years, writes Forbes, increasing by 43 percent from 2022 to 2023. Now, with Super Bowl LVIII boasting the highest U.S. viewership in history, experts are watching to see if the big game’s popularity continues to increase in China as well. 

Viewership took off in 2017, says SportsPro Media, when the NFL signed an exclusive streaming deal with Tencent, the largest streaming platform in China. Still, the NFL lagged behind the Chinese viewership of American basketball games, reported the Sports Business Journal. According to industry experts, “many of today's football fans in China are Americans living abroad or foreign-born Chinese,” forming a limited demographic of viewership.

The Super Bowl reached seven million viewers in China in 2019, according to Forbes. It drew lower numbers in the following years but its Chinese audience is now growing once more. The NFL reported that their 2023 viewership in China hit 6.2 million, a 43 percent increase from the previous year. According to Shen Xiao, an analyst for Tencent’s Super Bowl broadcast, “there are more and more fans in China year by year.”

While basketball viewership numbers in China still soar high above those for American Football, S&P Global reported that in 2023 the two sports shared the same percentage of viewers within the 18-29-year-old age range, demonstrating the growing popularity of football among younger Chinese viewers. 

For this year’s Super Bowl, the United States viewership numbers are in and they are staggering. The event was the most-viewed televised event in U.S. history, AP News reported, racking up 123.7 million viewers.

The Super Bowl corresponds with Chinese New Year most years; however, most Chinese watch the Super Bowl on their smartphone on the go or at work, wrote Forbes. NFL China’s managing director Richard Young explains that “it’s a very different consumption experience. You’re not having guacamole and beer and 20 friends over at 7 a.m.” Forbes also attributes higher viewership numbers to an increase in streaming availability on Chinese platforms like Tencent. The increase in viewership, especially among younger generations, demonstrates the increasing global appeal of American football.

Besides the growing number of football fans in China, there is another reason to expect high viewership in China for this year’s Super Bowl: Taylor Swift. Swift fans likely accounted for the 24 percent increase in women ages 18 to 24 watching the game from the United States, says Sports Illustrated, an increase in viewership likely to be reflected around the world. According to Newsweek, Swift enjoys significant popularity in China as well. Jonathan Sullivan, director of China programs at the University of Nottingham in England, states that “Swift really appeals to many young Chinese women who admire her qualities of independence, political views, and, of course because she's wholesome.”

These facts are based on past years and only provide predictions for this year’s numbers in China. However, the data contains a trend that predicts high viewership numbers in China for the 2024 Super Bowl. Chinese fans’ continued interest in the sport may open up avenues for further connections between the United States and China.