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Despite The First-Ever Overtime, Super Bowl 51 Fails To Set Ratings Record

The broadcast picked up 111.3 million viewers on TV, the second-highest ever for a Super Bowl.

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Last night's Super Bowl LI was a great game that came down to the wire. The Patriots edged out the Falcons in a thriller, that, for the first time in Super Bowl history, went to overtime. Despite those two elements, the broadcast did not set a ratings record.

Variety reports that the big game on Fox picked up an average of 111.3 million viewers on TV. Additionally, 1.7 million people streamed the game and 650,000 people watched on Fox Deportes.

The first half of Super Bowl LI was completely one-sided, with the Falcons steamrolling the Patriots. New England surged back in the second half to complete the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history.

2016's Super Bowl L, a game that wasn't all that close, attracted an audience of 111.9 million viewers on TV. The most-watched Super Bowl was 2014's Super Bowl XLIX, which gathered 114.4 million viewers on NBC, with an average streaming pool of 1.4 million viewers.

Advertisements for Super Bowl LI sold for an average of $5 million for 30 seconds. Because the game went to overtime, Fox made an additional $20 million for the commercials that aired during extra time, according to Variety.

Every Super Bowl since 2010's Super Bowl XLIV has surpassed 100 million viewers.

A lot of movie trailers (and a few video game ads) aired during Super Bowl LI. Check out GameSpot's roundup here to see all the big ones.

EA's annual Madden Super Bowl simulation accurately predicted that the Patriots would come from behind to win, though it didn't get the final score right.

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