Sports

How Super Bowl ad costs have skyrocketed over the years

kim k super bowl
Kim Kardashian appeared in T Mobile's Super Bowl ad in 2015. T Mobile/YouTube
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This year, a 30-second Super Bowl ad will cost companies $5.6 million – that's a whopping $186,666 per second.  

Despite last year's game drawing in the lowest viewership in recent years at an estimated 98.2 million people, ad prices show no sign of dropping any time soon.

Prices have increased almost every year from a modest $37,500 in 1967. By 1994, the average cost of a Super Bowl ad had exceeded $1 million.

By 2017, the cost had hit $5 million, and according to Ad Age, $4.9 billion was spent on advertising for the Super Bowl between the years 1967 and 2017. 

Since 2017, the average cost of a Super Bowl ad has continued to skyrocket. In 2018, the cost of a 30-second Super Bowl commercial was $5.2 million. In 2019, the average cost of a 30-second ad raised to $5.25 million.

super bowl ads cost
The average cost of a Super Bowl ad between 1967 and 2020.  Ruobing Su/Business Insider

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Erin McDowell
Erin McDowell is a senior reporter on Business Insider's editorial partnerships team. She covers food, lifestyle, and entertainment for Business Insider and its partner sites, including MSN, Apple News, and Yahoo.She graduated from Elon University in January 2019, where she studied strategic communications and digital art. She has written for V Magazine, Milk.XYZ, OUT.com, Brides Magazine, and more. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Ruobing is a Data Viz and Graphics Fellow based in New York. She is a proud graduate from Northeastern University's School of Journalism, holding a Master degree in Journalism, Media Innovation.  She is a multimedia storyteller who is fascinated by information design and data visualization. Before joining Business Insider, she has been a reporter at Sampan Newspaper for three years, covering Boston's Chinatown and Chinese-American culture. Get in touch with her at rsu@bjinnox.com.