How much did a TV advertisement cost at the 2021 Super Bowl? How much is it in 2022?

The Super Bowl has been the most watched television broadcast of the year in the US for many years, and advertisers need to pay millions for a chance to capture that massive audience.

Super Bowl games comprise 28 of the 30 most-watched broadcasts of all time. The remaining two are the M*A*S*H finale way back in 1983, and even further back, the Muhammad Ali vs. Leon Spinks championship boxing match in 1978.

With such a tremendous amount of viewers, the price for advertisements in the game has skyrocketed, as the networks hosting the game can afford to charge a premium.

Other Super Bowl stories:

Record ad prices

It is yet to be seen whether ratings for the game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams will bounce back from last year’s numbers, which had its lowest level since 2007, failing to reach 100 million. Last year’s poor viewership, however, has not deterred advertisers.

Super Bowl commercials have sold for record prices this year- several companies have reportedly paid an astronomical $7 million for a 30-second spot, and the advertising inventory is officially sold out. NBC, which hosts Super Bowl LVI, says the rates are 20% higher than in 2018, which is when they last broadcast the game.

Millions away from 1967

This amount is likely to bring up the average cost per ad, which was $5.5 million in 2021. The average cost of commercials has been at or past the $5 million mark since 2016. This is certainly a far cry from the price of a 30-second commercial when the first Super Bowl was held in 1967, which was around $42,500.

Big corporations cannot resist the appeal of such high viewership ratings, and go all-out in producing their commercials. They’ve used the services of celebrities for these spots, including Cindy Crawford and Britney Spears for Pepsi, Will Ferrell for General Motors, Keanu Reeves for Squarespace, and Liam Neeson for Clash of Clans: Revenge.