An estimated 100 million viewers watched the Patriots defeat the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 in the Super Bowl from Atlanta on CBS Sunday night, marking the lowest ratings the big game has seen since 2009, according to preliminary numbers from Nielsen Media Research.
The audience numbers for this year’s game, which was the lowest scoring in the game’s 53-year history, clocked in with a 44.9 rating in households.
That was the lowest rating since the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals in the 2009 Super Bowl.
{mosads}For context, last year’s thrilling 41-33 upset victory by the Philadelphia Eagles over the Patriots delivered a 47.4 rating, or 103.4 million viewers.
In 2017’s matchup between the Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons, 111.3 million tuned in to see New England erase a 28-3 second-half deficit to top the Atlanta Falcons in overtime.
On Sunday, 57.4 percent of Nielsen homes in Boston were tuned in to watch the Patriots play in their ninth Super Bowl in 17 years. In Los Angeles, just 44.6 percent of Nielsen homes watched the game. The Rams moved back to L.A. in 2016.
Wide receiver Julian Edelman was named this year’s Super Bowl MVP for hauling in 10 catches for 141 yards.
Edelman became just the second Patriots player who isn’t Tom Brady to win the award. The last Patriots MVP who wasn’t its quarterback was Deion Branch in 2004.
The Patriots celebrate their sixth Super Bowl win in nine tries with a parade on Tuesday in Boston.
It marks the second parade in Beantown in the past four months after the Red Sox celebrated their fourth World Series championship in 14 years last October.