Ratings: Almost 100M in U.S. watched Super Bowl LIV on Sunday

Feb. 3 (UPI) -- The Kansas City Chiefs' 31-20 win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV averaged 99.9 million viewers on Fox, marking the first ratings increase for the NFL championship game in five years.

The Nielsen company said Monday viewership increased slightly from last year's Super Bowl LIII between the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams, which drew 98.2 million viewers.

According to Nielsen's data, 69 percent of U.S. homes with televisions in use had their dials turned to the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Super Bowl viewership was slowly declining since its peak in 2015, when a record 114.4 million people watched the Patriots defeat the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX.

In total, Fox estimated that Sunday's game had 102 million viewers when including those who watched on Fox Deportes or through NFL and Verizon streaming services. That viewership figure makes Super Bowl LIV the 10th most-watched NFL championship game in history.

The Super Bowl LIV halftime performance shared by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira was viewed by 103 million people, according to Fox. That marked a 4 percent increase over last year's halftime performance headlined by Maroon 5 and rapper Travis Scott.

While the game drew lots of attention online, it was the halftime show that most engaged social media posters. The most Twitter interactions during the game occurred immediately following the performance, Nielsen said, stating the pair generated some 144,000 interactions on the platform.

Jeniffer Lopez also earned the game's "top social talent account," Nielsen said, by generating 2.2 million engagements -- dwarfing the 514,000 engagements Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes garnered as the "most socially engaging athlete account."

On social media, users made roughly 44 million interactions online about the game, making it Sunday's most "social TV program" and the most social telecast of the year, Nielsen said.

The television ratings company also said the cost for a 30-second commercial spot hit a record $5.4 million for the game, a $160,000 increase over last year. During Super Bowl I in 1967 -- the only one that was simulcast on two networks, NBC and CBS -- the same chunk of airtime cost $37,500.