The Super Bowl, the grand final of American football, remains, year after year, the most valuable advertising asset in the United States industry. In 2026, the event reached a new level by registering values of up to US$10 million, the equivalent of R$53.4 million at current prices, for just 30 seconds of commercial exhibition.
The number reinforces the strength of the NFL product in the sports media and marketing market and helps explain why all commercial quotas were sold out five months in advance, even in September 2025.
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The rise in prices highlights continued appreciation. In 2025, advertising space reached almost US$8 million. In 2024, the value was US$7 million, while in 2020 the cost was around US$5.5 million. The consistent growth reflects not only the increase in viewership, but also the Super Bowl’s ability to remain relevant in a landscape of digital transformation and fragmentation of attention.
The decisive clash of the season takes place this Sunday (8), in California, between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, winning the National Football League title. More than the sporting decision, the event became a great entertainment and business spectacle, capable of attracting brands from different sectors interested in associating their images with a product with global reach.
Who advertises?
For Bruno Guilherme, CEO of Brasil Sports Business and organizer of College Football Brasil, the Super Bowl today represents the pinnacle of integration between sport, media and culture. According to him, when a brand invests US$10 million in 30 seconds, it is not just buying an audience, but cultural relevance, global engagement and presence at a scarce event, with growing demand and high conversational power on the most diverse platforms.
According to advertising sales executives at Fox Sports, which owns the broadcasting rights, demand for commercial spaces constantly exceeds expectations. During the game, up to 10 insertions can occur per brand, within a total limit of 58 advertisements.
Investments are mainly driven by technology companies, with emphasis on solutions linked to artificial intelligence, in addition to sectors such as pharmaceuticals, finance, alcoholic beverages, consumer goods and entertainment. Traditional brands such as Häagen Dazs, Dove, Doritos and Skechers have maintained a recurring presence over the years.
The Super Bowl’s economic impact goes beyond advertising. Joaquim Lo Prete, country manager for Absolut Sport in Brazil, highlights that the event goes beyond sport and strengthens the local economy, especially in segments linked to tourism, such as hotels and restaurants. For him, the NFL demonstrates dominance by transforming a sports final into a great entertainment show, offering relevant lessons for the entire global sports industry.
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The high prices charged for advertisements are also justified by the massive audience. In 2025, Fox Sports reported that more than 127 million people watched the match, generating gross revenue of US$800 million, or R$4.3 billion, from advertising sales alone.
This number is expected to be even higher in 2026. Data from the Super Bowl Ads portal indicates that digital investments linked to the event grew by 20%, while 90% of the NFL’s regular season advertising inventory was also sold.
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Halftime show expands reach
Another decisive factor for commercial attractiveness is the halftime show. In 2026, the main attraction will be Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny, winner of three Grammy Awards. The previous year, the show featured Kendrick Lamar.
Information from Nielsen shows that more than 140 million people watched the 2025 Super Bowl, surpassing the numbers from 2024, with 124 million, and 2023, with 115 million. The projection for this year is to surpass the mark of 150 million viewers worldwide.
Danielle Vilhena, director of Operations and Projects at Agência End to End, highlights that the presence of renowned artists expands the reach of the event beyond the American football fan audience. The combination of sport, music and exclusive experiences helps to attract new audiences, increase engagement and reinforce the Super Bowl as a unique spectacle.
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For Ivan Martinho, professor of sports marketing at ESPM, even though the initial investment may seem high, it is justified when considering the size of the North American media market and the intense competition for attention. An event capable of attracting so many eyes at the same time and still generating conversations on social media for days after the final whistle is consolidated as one of the most effective platforms for visibility and brand positioning in world sport.
On the field, the NFL also stands out for its use of technology. It’s ten years of using advanced statistics with technology in your games through NFL Next Gen Stats. With chips on the players’ shoulder pads and inside the ball, in addition to more than 20 receivers installed in each stadium, the league began tracking the coordinates of the 22 athletes and the ball in real time, today generating more than 500 automatically analyzed statistics per play.
Developed in partnership with Amazon Web Services, the system has evolved from a tracking experiment into a platform with more than 75 machine learning models, which process millions of data points per game. Since 2015, technology has captured every movement on the field with millimeter precision and transformed this data into insights that guide teams’ strategic decisions, drive performance analysis, support safety-related choices and enrich the fan experience, as highlighted by Mike Band, one of the leaders of the NFL’s Next Gen Stats program.
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