Super Bowl 2025 Ad Spots Are More Expensive Than Ever Before (But Are They Worth It?)

As February begins, many start thinking about one of the largest annual events in the U.S., the Super Bowl. While this year's matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles has some NFL fans complaining, the chance for a historic three-peat (should the Chiefs win the Super Bowl for the third year in a row) has others highly anticipating the game. The return of Taylor Swift's attendance at the big game, combined with increased viewership throughout the season (the NFL reported an average of 17.3 million viewers per game, the highest amount through Week 10 since 2015) has made this year's Super Bowl highly anticipated, despite naysayers threatening to boycott the game over supposed favoritism.

However, for those less interested in the actual game, watching the all-out and celebrity-filled commercials that air during the game can be it's own annual tradition. In fact, according to a 2022 survey from Advocado, a whopping 42% of consumers who tune into the big game are only watching it for the commercials. Not only does the Super Bowl present brands with the opportunity to reach millions of people during the game, but, with the evolution of social media, it also offers brands the chance to reach even more people who didn't even tune in to the game (especially if the ad achieves viral status). With that in mind, there are some changes this year that could affect the kinds of ads that consumers will see during the game, not to mention how astronomical the price tag for these ads ended up being.

The price of the 2025 Super Bowl's ad spots are, probably to no one's surprise, more expensive than last year. According to Variety, Fox (the broadcaster airing this year's game) has already sold at least 10 Super Bowl commercial spots for more than $8 million each. However, it's worth noting that Fox had almost completely sold out of its Super Bowl commercial slots all the way back in August 2024. At that time, Fox leveraged the already heavy demand for the event to sell 30-second commercial slots for more than $7 million. To leverage even more money out of the situation, Fox even insisted that brands wanting a Super Bowl ad slot would need to commit to larger advertising packages that included advertising in other Fox telecasts. While this ultimatum has been good for Fox money-wise, it means that consumers will see less of the one-off unknown and under-the-radar brands and even entrepreneurs that often go big with a Super Bowl ad to jumpstart their businesses.

So, if Fox already sold out its ads last year in the $7 million range, why are ads selling now for over $8 million? The answer has to do with the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. State Farm Insurance, in particular, asked to be released from its previous Super Bowl ad slot deal despite being a major advertiser throughout the NFL season. With the release of these ad slots, Fox was then able to re-sell the slots for a higher price thanks to the ongoing interest in the game.

Given the exorbitant cost for very small periods of air time, you might be wondering just how "worth it" a Super Bowl ad slot really is. For starters, the viewership for the game can be a significant place to start when determining how successful a Super Bowl ad might be for a company. According to data from Sportico, the last Super Bowl matchup between the Chiefs and Eagles (which was in 2023) brought in 115.1 million viewers. This was the highest viewership in NFL history, but the record didn't last long. Some would argue that thanks to the Taylor Swift effect, a whopping 123.7 million viewers tuned in for the Super Bowl last year, according to Nielsen. To help put that into perspective, that made last year's Super Bowl game the largest TV broadcast since the moon landing in 1969.

This means that, at its simplest, a single 30 second commercial spot during the Super Bowl has the chance to introduce a company, brand, or product to over 100 million consumers. However, just how successful that commercial ultimately is at monetizing those impressions can be significantly more complicated to measure. Given the price tags, competition is stiff during the Super Bowl, meaning it can be easy for a brand's ad to get lost in the crowd. Just how creative, outlandish, or even unhinged a brand decides to make their ad can mean the difference between internet fame and ongoing impressions and being forgotten entirely.