The Super Bowl has come to dominate the sporting landscape, grabbing eyeballs and commercial dollars when the NFL Championship is decided.
This is an event for all the family, when even non-football fans take an interest in the greatest show on turf. But just how much of your Sunday evening will you need to dedicate to watching the Super Bowl?
We have trawled through the stats and figures to give you the answers!
Of course the Super Bowl – like any other game of football – runs for 60 minutes of in-play action. However, to that we need to add approximately 2 to 2 and a half hours of additional time for timeouts, play reviews, injuries, and TV commercials.
The last eight Super Bowls which were finished in normal time averaged 3 hours 33 minutes from kick off to the final whistle. The outliers were the two games that went into overtime, including Super Bowl LVIII between the Chiefs and 49ers, which set a record for the longest Championship game ever played.
Year | Teams | Result | Duration (hours:minutes) |
---|---|---|---|
2015 | New England Patriots vs. Seattle Seahawks | 28-24 | 3:36 |
2016 | Denver Broncos vs. Carolina Panthers | 24-10 | 3:43 |
2017 | New England Patriots vs. Atlanta Falcons | 34-28 (OT) | 3:47 |
2018 | Philadelphia Eagles vs. New England Patriots | 41-33 | 3:32 |
2019 | New England Patriots vs. Los Angeles Rams | 13-3 | 3:32 |
2020 | Kansas City Chiefs vs. San Francisco 49ers | 31-20 | 3:29 |
2021 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Kansas City Chiefs | 31-9 | 3:35 |
2022 | Los Angeles Rams vs. Cincinnati Bengals | 23-20 | 3:26 |
2023 | Kansas City Chiefs vs. Philadelphia Eagles | 38-35 | 3:31 |
2024 | Kansas City Chiefs vs. San Francisco 49ers | 27-24 (OT) | 4:06 |
Safe to conclude that in terms of game time, as long as the game doesn’t go into overtime then the Super Bowl will last around 3 and a half hours. The fastest Super Bowl ever clocked in at 3 hours and 14 minutes, but anything less than 3 and a half hours is pretty uncommon.
The halftime show has become almost as integral a part of the Super Bowl as the game itself. The musical performance has figured a who’s who of the entertainment industry, with a wide range of genres featuring over the years.
However, what has remained relatively consistent in the past ten years has been the length of time of the show, reliably coming in at just under half an hour every year, including the time it takes to set up the stage.
Year | Super Bowl | Performers | Halftime Performance Duration | Total Halftime Break |
---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | XLVIII | Bruno Mars, Red Hot Chili Peppers | ~13 minutes | ~28 minutes |
2015 | XLIX | Katy Perry, Lenny Kravitz, Missy Elliott | ~12 minutes | ~30 minutes |
2016 | 50 | Coldplay, Beyoncé, Bruno Mars | ~14 minutes | ~28 minutes |
2017 | LI | Lady Gaga | ~13 minutes | ~29 minutes |
2018 | LII | Justin Timberlake | ~14 minutes | ~30 minutes |
2019 | LIII | Maroon 5, Travis Scott, Big Boi | ~13 minutes | ~28 minutes |
2020 | LIV | Shakira, Jennifer Lopez | ~15 minutes | ~30 minutes |
2021 | LV | The Weeknd | ~14 minutes | ~29 minutes |
2022 | LVI | Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar | ~15 minutes | ~30 minutes |
2023 | LVII | Rihanna | ~14 minutes | ~28 minutes |
While the actual performance time usually takes 12 to 15 minutes, add up your stage construction and commercials and you are looking at a 30 minute break, which is incorporated into the game time.
So the game – including half time show – will take around 3 hours 30 minutes to complete. But after putting in that time, you’re gonna want to see the Vince Lombardi trophy being presented to the winners, right? So let’s add in another 15 minutes to set up the trophy presentation and you are looking at somewhere between 3 hours 45 mins and four hours from kick-off to confetti cannons going off.
The Super Bowl starts at 6:30pm Eastern Time every year, and so we can confidently predict it will be wrapped up by 10:30 ET, barring overtime or random events like the New Orleans power blackout.
Ross has been writing about sports for over a decade, spcecializing in the NFL, soccer and boxing. His written work has appeared on a number of online publications over that time.