Super Bowl commercial cost by year.

A 30-second commercial in Super Bowl LX (8 February 2026, on NBC) cost about $8,000,000. That is $266,667 for every second of airtime, or $63.69 for every 1,000 viewers. NBCUniversal said spots averaged about $8 million, with between five and ten selling for more than $10 million; some outlets headline the $10 million top price.

Sources: CNBC, Bloomberg

At Super Bowl I in 1967, a 30-second spot cost about $37,500, or $381,816 in August 2026 dollars.

Sources: Sports Business Journal2

From $37,500 in 1967 to $8,000,000 in 2026: 213× the price. Even after inflation, the price is 21× higher.

In 2026, reaching 1,000 viewers cost about $63.69 (125.6 million watched). In 1967 it cost 73.3¢. Audiences have grown, but prices have grown much faster.

Nielsen measured an average US audience of 125.6 million for Super Bowl LX in 2026; the record is 127.7 million, for Super Bowl LIX in 2025. An ad’s own audience depends on when it airs, but the game’s average is the usual guide. Since 1967 the audience has grown 2.5×, while the price of a 30-second spot has grown 213×.

Sources: Nielsen

The television network that broadcasts the game sells the national commercial time during it; the NFL typically limits how many minutes of advertising the game carries. The league rotates the game among its broadcast partners as part of their wider NFL rights deals. Under the agreements covering the 2023 to 2033 seasons, CBS, Fox and NBC each have three Super Bowls and ABC, with ESPN, has two, the first in February 2027.

Sources: NFL.com, ESPN Press Room, CBS News / Associated Press, Ad Age

The broadcaster sets an asking price, often called the rate card, and raises it when demand is strong; a Super Bowl spot reaches an unusually large audience, with Nielsen counting a record 127.7 million viewers for the 2025 game. Few advertisers simply pay the rate card. Spots are commonly sold in packages with other programming, and the price depends on where an ad runs in the game, how much time is bought and when. Prices tend to climb as the remaining spots run out.

Sources: Sports Business Journal, Kantar Media, CNBC, Variety, Nielsen

Months in advance. NBCUniversal announced on 3 September 2025 that all advertising for Super Bowl LX was sold, more than five months before the game and, it said, earlier than ever. Fox said in November 2024 that Super Bowl LIX was sold out, and Paramount said on 2 November 2023 that CBS's in-game inventory for Super Bowl LVIII was virtually sold out. That is a change from the mid-2010s, when NBC sold its last Super Bowl XLIX spots only four days before the 2015 game and CBS finished selling Super Bowl LIII on the day of the 2019 game.

Sources: NBCUniversal, CNBC, The Hollywood Reporter, CNN Money, Broadcasting & Cable

Yes. NBCUniversal said 30-second spots in the February 2026 game averaged about $8 million, but that between five and ten sold for more than $10 million each. Adweek reported that this was the first time a broadcaster had reached $10 million for a Super Bowl spot, and CNBC reported that advertisers who bought closer to the game paid more.

Sources: CNBC, Bloomberg, Adweek

No. The reported price buys only the airtime. Production, celebrity fees, music licensing and the marketing around an advert all cost extra. The New York Times reported in 2017 that brands might spend between a quarter of the airtime cost and the same amount again just on promoting their ads, and an industry executive quoted by Sports Business Journal in 2026 said production, talent and a supporting campaign can quickly take the total past $10 million.

Sources: The New York Times, Sports Business Journal, Variety

The first game, in January 1967, was then called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game and was shown on both CBS and NBC, each of which sold its own commercials. CBS charged $42,500 for 30 seconds and NBC $37,500. Many histories quote NBC's lower price as the cost of the first Super Bowl ad.

Sources: Sports Business Journal2, Nielsen, Kantar

A full minute first cost $1 million at Super Bowl XIX in January 1985, when ABC charged that price and described it as the highest in television history; a 30-second spot cost $525,000. The average 30-second spot passed $1 million ten years later, in 1995, and $2 million in 2000.

Sources: UPI, Los Angeles Times, CBS News / Associated Press, Sports Business Journal

Occasionally. The ad-tracking firm TNS Media Intelligence recorded a dip from $2.5 million in 2006 to just under $2.4 million in 2007, and during the recession it estimated CBS's 2010 prices at $2.5 million to $2.8 million, below the $3 million average NBC achieved in 2009. During the pandemic, CBS sought about $5.5 million for the 2021 game, slightly less than the $5.6 million Fox reached for 2020. The older Nielsen-based series also shows small dips, for example in 1971, 1984 and 1996.

Sources: CBS News / Associated Press, Variety, Bloomberg, Sports Business Journal

Hundreds of millions of dollars, although networks seldom publish exact totals. Adweek reported that Fox took more than $800 million in advertising across Fox and Tubi for Super Bowl LIX in 2025, a record at the time, and that NBCUniversal said Super Bowl LX in 2026 set a new record without disclosing the figure.

Sources: Adweek2

Nielsen has gradually widened what it counts. Its historical table includes Spanish-language simulcasts from 2014, out-of-home viewing in places such as bars from the 2021 game and, for most recent games, streaming on services such as Paramount+, Tubi and Peacock. Super Bowl LX in 2026 was also the first measured with Nielsen's Big Data + Panel method. Figures from about 2020 onwards are therefore not strictly like-for-like with earlier decades.

Sources: Nielsen23