Leading up to the Super Bowl LVIII matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs, a lot was made about the extremely high ticket prices for the big game. But in a pretty shocking turn of events, the game ultimately had the lowest attendance of any Super Bowl in history.
As Ben Fisher of the Sports Business Journal points out, with an attendance of just 61,629, this was the lowest-attended Super Bowl of any game besides the Super Bowl that followed the 2020 pandemic season.
“This is the smallest announced attendance in Super Bowl history, except for pandemic season.
1. 61,629, SB LVIII (Vegas, ‘24)
2. 61,946, SB I (LA, ’67)
3. 62,417, SB LIV (Miami, ’20)
4. 63,130, SB XXVI (Minn., ’92)
5. 67,603, SB XXXVII (San Diego, ’03),” Fischer said in a post on X, the social media website that was formerly known as Twitter.
This is the smallest announced attendance in Super Bowl history, except for pandemic season.
1. 61,629, SB LVIII (Vegas, ‘24)
2. 61,946, SB I (LA, ’67)
3. 62,417, SB LIV (Miami, ’20)
4. 63,130, SB XXVI (Minn., ’92)
5. 67,603, SB XXXVII (San Diego, ’03)— Ben Fischer (@BenFischerSBJ) February 12, 2024
It’s worth noting that some of this is due to the stadium’s capacity. Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas has a capacity of just 65,000. So even with every seat in the stands filled, it would have still technically ranked in the bottom five in terms of attendance in Super Bowl history.
Still, it’s not necessarily a great look for the NFL’s biggest game to be played with thousands of empty seats in the crowd.