Kendrick Lamar’s record-breaking Super Bowl halftime show matters for more than just one night. Here’s why.

The 2025 Super Bowl was the most-watched in history, according to Nielsen fast national figures and Tubi/NFL first-party analytics. The game, which saw the Philadelphia Eagles rout the Kansas City Chiefs, drew an estimated 126 million viewers and peaked at 137.7 million just before the halftime show, headlined by Kendrick Lamar.

Lamar, who swept the Grammys on Feb. 2 with five wins, is at the top of his game as a rapper. References to his feud with Drake — and the biggest song that emerged from it, “Not Like Us” — were a high point of his performance. It is the most-watched halftime show of all time, according to Roc Nation and Fox Sports. The NFL reposted the tweet on its official X account. .

The 4,000 comments on Yahoo Entertainment’s recap of Lamar’s Super Bowl set expressed differing opinions, and many of the most-liked weren’t too happy with the show. (Note: Responses have been edited for clarity and length, and commenters are identified by their Yahoo usernames only.)

“I’m old, so it might just be me,” Allan wrote. “I did not know what was going on during the show and wasn’t entertained by it. I’m just guessing here, but I’d say at least 75% of our country feels the same way I do.”

Lucinda wrote that she is “75, and old enough to remember when various high school marching bands were chosen to perform at halftime during the regular season NFL games.”

“Good, clean entertainment, not the stuff that passes for today’s Super Bowl halftime ‘shows’ which gets worse every year,” Lucinda added.

“81 and couldn’t agree with you more. Need a show for ALL generations,” Richard commented.

Recent halftime shows have platformed artists both currently having a moment, like Lamar in 2025, as well as artists beloved by millennials and Gen Z, like Usher in 2024 and Rihanna in 2023. They drew a bigger audience than any other halftime in recent history — trailing only Lamar — with 123.4 million and 121 million viewers respectively.

That hasn’t always been the halftime strategy, though.

In 2019, the NFL first tapped Jay-Z’s Roc Nation to consult on its entertainment plans, including the Super Bowl halftime show. The goal was to “strengthen community through music and the NFL’s Inspire Change initiative.”

The league created Inspire Change after an agreement with players who protested for social and racial justice in the United States when the national anthem was played during games. That movement was sparked by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who kneeled during the national anthem in 2016.

“With its global reach, the National Football League has the platform and opportunity to inspire change across the country,” Jay-Z said in a statement when the partnership was first announced. “Roc Nation has shown that entertainment and enacting change are not mutually exclusive ideas — instead, we unify them. This partnership is an opportunity to strengthen the fabric of communities across America.”

Before the partnership, artists like Coldplay, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry performed in the 2010s while they were firmly part of the zeitgeist, all drawing in more than 110 million viewers. TV audiences were smaller in the aughts, when acts that appealed to older people, like Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Prince and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, dominated the stage.

In the ’90s, rather than having artists headline their own show, a smorgasbord of cross-generational artists often performed according to a theme, like “Salute to Motown’s 40th Anniversary” in 1998 or “Small World Tribute to 25 Years of the Super Bowl” in 1991. Michael Jackson was an outlier in 1993, when he headlined the show and drew a record 133.4 million viewers, surpassed only by Lamar this year.

The concept of having a themed or headlined halftime performance was a departure from the mid-’80s and earlier, when halftime entertainment was usually provided by different marching bands.

Over the years, the Super Bowl halftime show has evolved to meet the present moment’s entertainment norms and audience needs. According to a 2024 Deloitte survey, Gen Z is increasingly more likely to watch social video and livestreams than they are to tune into live TV broadcasts, It’s not surprising that the NFL has likely been leaning into younger, hipper artists to cater to the audience they might not capture otherwise.

In October, news broke that Roc Nation and NFL were extending their partnership, with Roc Nation continuing to produce the Super Bowl halftime show.

“It’s been a mutually positive relationship,” Goodell told Bloomberg. “I’m not sure either one of us really spend much time talking about contracts. Jay is happy. [Roc Nation CEO] Desiree Perez is happy. I’m happy, so we’re all good.”

Apple Music first began sponsoring the halftime show in 2023, when Rihanna performed. Oliver Schusser, vice president of Apple Music and Beats, told Fast Company in 2024 ahead of Usher’s performance that year-over-year viewership stats are not their metric of success.

“Our mission is to work with the NFL and Roc Nation to make the halftime show bigger and more global, and a longer event,” Schusser said. “We want it to be about more than just that Sunday night. There is a bigger story to tell before and after.”

Luckily for them, they’ve crushed year-over-year stats and made post-show impact. Between 9 p.m. on Sunday and midnight ET on Monday, streams of Lamar’s music spiked by nearly 175% on Spotify compared to last week at the same time, according to data the streaming service sent Yahoo Entertainment — not a small feat for an artist who just dominated the Grammys.

Like it or not, people tuned in, and they’re still talking about it days later. We’ll see what direction the NFL and Roc Nation head in next year, but it’s likely they’ll keep following their successful formula.