Premium experiences company Legends has added to the list of records set by this year’s Super Bowl 58, the showpiece finale of the latest season of American football’s NFL, by logging the highest merchandise sales in the flagship event’s history.
Legends - which holds exclusive rights from the NFL to retail licensed merchandise at hotels, pop-up stores, the flagship store at the Super Bowl Experience fan festival, and host venue Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas as well as the year-round NFL store at the city’s Caesars Palace - said sales surpassed the previous record set during Super Bowl 50 in San Francisco by between 1% and 2%.
The previous highwater mark included a record $4.6 million in merchandise sales at Levi’s Stadium in San Francisco eight years ago. While this year’s specific game-day stadium merchandise sales did not break records, there was a 2% increase from the 2023 event numbers.
Overall merchandise sales increased 18% from last year’s Super Bowl 57 in Phoenix, Arizona.
There were 13 merchandise locations inside Allegiant Stadium and nine portable retail locations outside the venue.
Kirta Carroll, president of Legends Global Merchandise, said: “Fans showed up ready to shop in Las Vegas, and our team was ready at locations around the city with an expanded assortment of merchandise offerings from more than 50 partners, including more lifestyle and women’s apparel, the exciting capsule collection co-designed by Usher and the NFL, and unique designs celebrating Las Vegas.
“Our team is incredibly proud to partner with the NFL to deliver a first-class experience for fans at the Super Bowl looking to represent their favorite team or take home a memory from the big game.”
As well as the Super Bowl, Legends' deal with the NFL includes managing on-site retail at other flagship events, including Pro Bowl Games, the NFL Draft, and the NFL Combine.
The company also has partnerships with several specific NFL teams, including the Buffalo Bills to provide hospitality for fans at the franchise’s new Buffalo Bills Stadium, as well as providing food and beverage offers at other major facilities like AT&T Stadium, and SoFi Stadium.
The new merchandise record comes on the back of the NFL announcing this year’s event drew record viewership figures in both the US and UK.
The combination of two widely supported teams, the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs (the Chiefs won 25-22 in overtime) the fact the game went to a highly-tense overtime period, as well as each side’s star-studded offenses, were likely factors in drawing such high viewership for Super Bowl 58, as was the media frenzy around pop-star Taylor Swift’s presence at the game.
In the US, the game was broadcast on the Paramount-owned national network CBS and drew an average of 123.4 million viewers, far above the previous record of 115.1 million set by Fox’s broadcast of Super Bowl 57 in 2023.
The total viewership figure comprised all TV broadcasts including CBS, CBS Sports, Spanish-language channel Univision, the alternate broadcast on children's channel Nickelodeon, and the Paramount+ and NFL+ streaming services.
In the UK, meanwhile, the game averaged over 1 million viewers across free-to-air and pay-TV offerings – higher than any other edition in the region.
Free-to-air broadcaster ITV drew an average of 555,000, an increase of 18% on Super Bowl 57’s viewership on the channel, while pay-tv giant Sky drew an average of 514,000 viewers, which is up 49% on last year’s event.
Viewership across ITV and Sky Sports peaked early into the game's first quarter at 1.73 million viewers just before midnight UK time.
