Are Super Bowl Shoppers Calling a Budgetary Audible?

With Super Bowl LX set for Sunday, February 8 — as the New England Patriots play host to the Seattle Seahawks — it appears that football fans of all stripes are slightly curtailing their budget around the big event.

According to data provided by LendingTree’s 2026 Super Bowl Spending Report, the percentage of Americans who will be tuning in for kickoff (and the halftime show, as well as the commercials) is expected to improve this year, to 80% versus last year’s figure of 75%. However, viewers are anticipated to spend less in 2026 in expenditures tied to the big game, coming in at an average of $129 against $142 last year.

Other notable data points pulled from the report include:

• A gender divide, and age divide, on Super Bowl spend are in evidence: Men are expected to spend almost twice as much as women ($168 versus $87, on average), while “the younger you are, the more money you’re likely to spend,” per the report authors. Gen Zers are anticipated to splash out $191 on average, almost four times the average Super Bowl spend expected from baby boomers (those ages 62 to 80), which was registered at $53. In the middle of the pack, millennials are expected to drop $171 on the game, while Gen Xers are expected to spend $96.
• A slightly larger cohort are cutting back, versus those increasing their Super Bowl spend: Just over one-fifth of respondents indicated that they were curtailing their big game budget (21%), and slightly less than that number conversely stated intentions to spend more (19%). There was also a gender divide present in the data here, with 24% of men saying they’d be spending more in 2026 than the year prior, versus 18% cutting back — while just 14% of women were increasing their Super Bowl budget, against 24% slashing spend. The most popular purchases? Perhaps unsurprisingly, food and beverages notched first place (71%), followed by clothing or accessories (20%), and streaming subscriptions (18%).
• Gambling is on a meteoric rise: The proliferation of legal sportsbook apps and websites — and advertising tied to these platforms — may be a factor in driving a significant increase in gambling behavior surrounding Super Bowl LX. More than half of viewers plan to wager on the game this year (54%), a huge uptick versus the 41% who said so in 2025.

Less Than Half of Super Bowl Viewers Say the Game Itself Is the Primary Draw

In what may be representative of an heavily experiential and commercially attuned modern audience, the gridiron battle between the Patriots and the Seahawks isn’t the primary reason for watching the game for more than half of the viewership, with just 49% saying as much.

Of the remainder, nearly one-fifth of Americans (17%) stated that the entertainment (the halftime show, and other performances) were the primary reason for tuning in — followed by the commercials (14%), the opportunity to spend time with family (11%), betting opportunities (6%), as a social obligation (2%, and I feel for these viewers in particular, as it’s not a short event), and other (2%).