Quick Facts:
| Detail | Info |
| Official Name | Super Bowl LX (60) |
| Date | Sunday, February 8, 2026 |
| Kickoff Time | 6:30 PM Eastern / 3:30 PM Pacific |
| Location | Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, California |
| Teams | Seattle Seahawks vs. New England Patriots |
| Final Score | New England Patriots 13, Seattle Seahawks 29 |
| MVP | Kenneth Walker III (RB, Seattle Seahawks) |
| TV Broadcast | NBC (English), Telemundo / Universo (Spanish) |
| Streaming | Peacock, NFL+ |
| Halftime Headliner | Bad Bunny (feat. Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin) |
| National Anthem | Charlie Puth |
| “America the Beautiful” | Brandi Carlile |
| “Lift Every Voice and Sing” | Coco Jones |
| Pregame Show | Green Day performance at 6:00 PM ET |
| Coin Toss | Joe Montana |
| Referee | Shawn Smith |
| Attendance | 70,823 |
| TV Viewership | ~124.9 million (U.S.) |
| Cost of a 30-Second Ad | $8 million |
The Day Everybody Was Waiting For
February 8, 2026. A Sunday. The kind of Sunday where people plan their whole week around it.
It was Super Bowl LX — the 60th time America sat down together to watch one football game decide it all. That’s six decades of this tradition. And somehow, it still felt electric.
The Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots walked into Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California with everything on the line. By the time the night was over, Seattle had its second Lombardi Trophy. One running back had made history. And Bad Bunny had put on a halftime show people were still talking about for weeks.
But let’s start from the beginning — because if you’ve ever wondered what time the Super Bowl was on, or what happened from the first kickoff to the final whistle, this is everything you need to know.
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What Time Did the Super Bowl Start?
Kickoff was scheduled for 6:30 PM Eastern Time.
Out on the West Coast, where the game was actually being played, that translated to 3:30 PM Pacific. So people in California were watching in the late afternoon sun. People in New York and all up the East Coast were settling in for prime evening TV.
Pregame coverage started way earlier, though. NBC kicked off its pregame programming at 9:00 AM Eastern that morning. That’s a full nine and a half hours of build-up before the first snap.
The official pregame show — featuring the player introductions, the anthem, and all the ceremonies — began at around 1:00 PM Eastern. Green Day played a pregame performance starting at 6:00 PM Eastern, just 30 minutes before kickoff.
So if you wanted to catch everything from the very start, you were looking at an all-day event. Most people tuned in somewhere around 5:00 or 6:00 PM Eastern, grabbed their snacks, and settled in.
Where Was It Played?
The game landed at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California — right in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area.
This was a meaningful choice. The stadium opened back in 2014 and is home to the San Francisco 49ers. It seats about 68,500 people normally. On Super Bowl Sunday, 70,823 fans packed in.
This was Levi’s Stadium’s second time hosting the Super Bowl. The first was Super Bowl 50, back in 2016, when the Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers. A decade had passed and the stage was set again.
California has now hosted 14 Super Bowls in its history.With 17, Florida is the only state to host more. This dates back to 1967’s Super Bowl I in the Los Angeles Coliseum, where the Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Bay Area itself buzzed with energy all week. Hundreds of thousands of fans, media, celebrities, and NFL events flooded the region in the days leading up to game day.
How to Watch: TV Channel and Streaming
Super Bowl LX aired on NBC.
That’s the deal the NFL has with its broadcast partners — the game rotates between CBS, Fox, NBC, and ABC/ESPN each year. In 2026, it was NBC’s turn.
For Spanish-language viewers, Telemundo and Universo both broadcast the game simultaneously.
The main broadcast crew for NBC included Mike Tirico on play-by-play and Cris Collinsworth as the analyst. Melissa Stark and Kaylee Hartung worked the sidelines. Terry McAulay handled rules analysis throughout the game.
For streaming, Peacock was the home base. An ad-supported Peacock subscription ran $11 a month and let you stream everything live — the game, the halftime show, and every commercial. NFL+ also streamed the game, though only on mobile devices with that subscription.
If you had a TV antenna, you could also pick up NBC for free over the air in most cities. No cable required, no subscription needed.
The Pregame Ceremonies
Before a single play was run, the stadium went through a full lineup of performances and ceremonies.
Charlie Puth sang the national anthem. His pop-influenced delivery got people talking before the coin had even been tossed.
Coco Jones, the rising R&B star, performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Her voice filled the stadium.
Brandi Carlile took on “America the Beautiful,” bringing her powerful, emotional style to the moment.
American Sign Language performers were also part of every ceremony. Fred Beam interpreted the national anthem and “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Julian Ortiz performed “America the Beautiful” in ASL. Puerto Rican Sign Language performer Celimar Rivera Cosme joined the halftime show celebrations too.
Joe Montana — the San Francisco 49ers legend and four-time Super Bowl winner — flipped the coin at midfield. That was a moment. Montana won four Super Bowls, two of them at the very same stadium decades earlier, stepping back onto that Bay Area turf. The crowd loved it.
The Seahawks won the coin toss.
The Teams: Seahawks vs. Patriots
Not everyone expected this matchup.
The Seattle Seahawks came in representing the NFC. They finished the regular season strong, with star wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba leading the league in receiving yards at 1,793. Running back Kenneth Walker III had reached 1,027 rushing yards during the regular season. Quarterback Sam Darnold — yes, that Sam Darnold, the one who had bounced around five different NFL teams — was leading this squad.
The Seahawks came in as 4.5-point favorites.
The New England Patriots arrived from the AFC. Their young quarterback Drake Maye had been the story of the season. But Maye had been playing through a shoulder injury since the AFC Championship Game, and that hung over the team all week.
New England’s defense had been elite all season. They had never allowed a running back to rush for even 40 yards in the entire postseason heading into this game. Nobody expected what Kenneth Walker was about to do to them.
What Happened in the Game
This was not a close game for most of the night. Seattle dominated.
Kenneth Walker got going in the second quarter. He broke off runs of 29 yards and 30 yards in a three-play stretch that changed the whole tone of the evening. The Patriots couldn’t find an answer for him.
Seattle’s defense was equally ferocious. They harassed Drake Maye all night, sacking him six times as a team. Linebacker Derick Hall had two sacks on a night when he had recorded only two all season long. The Patriots’ offense went completely silent through the first half — New England earned just four first downs in the entire opening 30 minutes.
At halftime, Seattle led 9-0, with Walker already owning more than half his team’s offensive yards.
The same thing continued into the second half. Seattle’s defense kept strangling New England’s offense. Walker kept grinding. Kicker Jason Myers set an NFL record by booting five field goals in a single Super Bowl.
Then the dagger came.Uchenna Nwosu, a linebacker with the Patriots, intercepted a ball from Drake Maye and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown. It’s over.
New England Patriots 13, Seattle Seahawks 29.
With the loss, New England became the first team in NFL history to lose six Super Bowls.
The MVP: Kenneth Walker III
Before this night, running backs had been largely dismissed as luxury items in modern football. Speed, passes, big-play receivers — that’s what people talked about. Backs, people argued, didn’t matter like they used to.
Kenneth Walker III made every one of those people look foolish.
He carried the ball 27 times for 135 yards and caught two passes for another 26. That’s 161 scrimmage yards total. He forced nine missed tackles. He got 114 of his yards on runs to the outside, finding edges and exploding through them.
The 135 rushing yards were the most by any player in a Super Bowl since Terrell Davis had 157 back in 1998. Walker became the first running back to win a Super Bowl MVP since that same Terrell Davis, nearly 28 years earlier.
What made Walker’s story even more powerful was the journey behind it. As a teenager in Tennessee, Walker woke up one summer morning struggling to breathe. He ended up in the emergency room with blood clots in both lungsPhysicians warned him that he might never be able to play football again.
On a February night in Santa Clara, with a Super Bowl MVP trophy in his hands, Walker didn’t gloat or boast. He just said, “When a doctor told me I couldn’t play any more, I just thought football was over. Going through that, it just made me grateful for each and every day.”
That’s the kind of stuff that makes sports matter.
The Halftime Show: Bad Bunny Takes the World’s Stage
Bad Bunny headlining a Super Bowl halftime show was a moment that felt bigger than just entertainment.
He became only the second Latin artist to headline the halftime show solo, and he made sure the entire world understood what that meant.
When the NFL announced the news back in September 2025, Bad Bunny — born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — posted something in Spanish: “Ve y dile a tu abuela, que seremos el HALFTIME SHOW DEL SUPER BOWL.” Translation: “Go tell your grandmother that we will be at the Super Bowl halftime show.” That sentence alone captured everything about the moment.
The stage was built like a Puerto Rican village — colorful, loud, alive, full of culture. Dancers filled every corner of it. Bad Bunny moved through the entire set, song after song, bringing an energy that was impossible to look away from.
Then came the surprises. Lady Gaga appeared and performed alongside him. Ricky Martin joined in too. The crowd at Levi’s Stadium, and the 124.9 million people watching at home, went completely electric.
The whole show ran about 13 minutes — standard Super Bowl halftime length. But it packed in more cultural pride, more pure joy, and more spectacle than most shows twice as long.
The Commercials: $8 Million for 30 Seconds
Super Bowl commercials have become their own event inside the event.
In 2026, a 30-second spot cost advertisers $8 million. That’s up from $7–7.5 million the year before. Every second of airtime during the game was essentially worth a quarter million dollars.
NBC sold out its entire commercial inventory before the NFL season even kicked off in September 2025. Brands had been lined up for months.
The advertising world set a new record: 103 celebrity appearances across 66 different commercials. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon showed up for Dunkin’. Sabrina Carpenter appeared for Pringles. Ben Stiller popped up for Instacart.
Budweiser’s Clydesdale commercial — a staple of Super Bowl advertising — won USA Today’s Ad Meter for the 10th time in the brand’s history, scoring a 4.00 out of 5.00.
The total spend around Super Bowl ads, when you factor in production costs, celebrity fees, and post-game marketing, ranged from $12.5 million to over $23 million per brand. And yet, companies line up every year for these slots. The reach is just that massive.
The Numbers: How Many People Watched?
About 124.9 million people in the United States tuned into Super Bowl LX.
That number was slightly down from the previous year’s 127.7 million — a small dip of roughly 2%. But it still made this game NBC’s most-watched program in its entire history.
Around the world, the total peaked at approximately 137 million viewers across all platforms.
Think about that for a second. On one Sunday night, 125 million Americans were watching the same thing at the same time. In a world of a thousand streaming services and a billion different things competing for attention, the Super Bowl still does that.
No other event in American life comes close.
Super Bowl LXI: What’s Coming Next
One Super Bowl ends and people immediately start asking about the next one.
Super Bowl LXI is already on the calendar. It will be played on February 14, 2027 — Valentine’s Day — at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. That makes it the latest Super Bowl date in NFL history.
The Los Angeles Chargers and Los Angeles Rams both play at SoFi Stadium. It hosted Super Bowl LVI in 2022, when the Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals on their own field. It’ll be a homecoming of sorts.
Final Words
The 2026 Super Bowl was everything this event is supposed to be.
It was a great game. It had a dominant performance by an underdog hero who nearly lost his life before he ever had a chance to play. It had a halftime show full of pride and culture and genuine emotion. It had a stadium bursting at the seams and over 100 million people watching at home.
And somewhere in all of that — between the kick-off at 6:30 Eastern on February 8 and the final whistle with Seattle ahead 29-13 — there was that feeling the Super Bowl still somehow manages to deliver every single year.
It’s the feeling that, for one night, everybody’s watching the same thing. Everybody’s holding their breath at the same moment. Everybody’s on their feet when something incredible happens.
That feeling? No app can replicate it. No algorithm can engineer it.
It just happens. Every first Sunday in February, on a field somewhere, under the lights
FAQs.
1. What time was the Super Bowl kickoff in 2026?
Kickoff for Super Bowl LX happened at 6:30 PM Eastern Time on Sunday, February 8, 2026. That was 3:30 PM for people on the West Coast.
2. What channel was the 2026 Super Bowl on?
The game aired on NBC in English. Spanish-language viewers could watch on Telemundo or Universo. It also streamed live on Peacock and on mobile through NFL+.
3. Could you watch the Super Bowl for free?
Yes. NBC is a free over-the-air channel, so anyone with a TV antenna in most cities could watch without paying a thing. Peacock’s ad-supported plan also offered streaming access for $11 per month.
4. Where was Super Bowl LX held?
At Santa Clara, California’s Levi’s Stadium, the San Francisco 49ers’ home . It was the second time the stadium hosted the Super Bowl — the first was Super Bowl 50 in 2016.
5. Who won Super Bowl LX?
The Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots 29–13.It was the second Super Bowl victory for Seattle.
6. Who was the Super Bowl MVP?
Running back Kenneth Walker III of the Seattle Seahawks won MVP.In addition to adding 26 receiving yards, he ran 27 times for 135 yards. Since Terrell Davis in 1998, he was the first running back to receive the honor.
7. Who performed at the Super Bowl halftime show?
Bad Bunny headlined the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show. Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin appeared as surprise guests. The show was a celebration of Puerto Rican culture and music.
8. Who sang the national anthem?
Charlie Puth sang the U.S. national anthem. Coco Jones performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Brandi Carlile sang “America the Beautiful.” American Sign Language performers also interpreted every ceremony.
9. Who did the coin toss?
NFL legend Joe Montana — who won four Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers, including two at the same Bay Area location — performed the coin toss. The Seahawks won.
10. How many people watched the 2026 Super Bowl?
About 124.9 million Americans watched, making it NBC’s most-watched program in network history. Globally, viewership peaked around 137 million.
11. How much did a commercial cost during Super Bowl LX?
A 30-second advertising spot cost brands approximately $8 million. All commercial inventory was sold out before the NFL season even started in September 2025.
12. What time did pregame coverage start?
NBC started pregame coverage at 9:00 AM Eastern. The official NFL pregame show began at 1:00 PM Eastern. Green Day performed a pregame concert starting at 6:00 PM Eastern, just 30 minutes before kickoff.
13. Was the Super Bowl available in Spanish?
Yes. Both Telemundo and Universo carried the game with full Spanish-language commentary and broadcast crews.
14. What happened at the game? Was it close?
It was not particularly close. Seattle dominated throughout. The Seahawks led 9–0 at halftime and pushed the lead to 29–7 before New England scored late. With the loss, the Patriots became the first team in history to lose six Super Bowls.
15. When is the next Super Bowl?
Super Bowl LXI is scheduled for February 14, 2027 — Valentine’s Day — at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. It will be the latest Super Bowl date in NFL history.
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