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Super Bowl countdown
The Super Bowl is the NFL’s championship game and the most-watched annual broadcast on US television. It is played on the Sunday after the two conference championship games — under the current 18-week schedule, that is usually the second Sunday of February.
When does the Super Bowl fall each year?
The Super Bowl date is not fixed to a calendar day — it is anchored to the end of the NFL playoffs. The chain works backwards from these rules:
- The regular season is 18 weeks long (17 games + 1 bye per team) since the 2021 CBA expansion.
- The playoffs run four rounds: Wild Card (week 1), Divisional (week 2), Conference Championships (week 3), then a one-week gap, then the Super Bowl.
- That one-week gap was added in 2003 to allow extra promotion, travel and rest. It is the main reason the Super Bowl moved later in the calendar.
Under the current schedule, the Super Bowl almost always lands on the second Sunday of February. From 1967 to 2001 it was usually the second or third Sunday of January; from 2002 to 2021 it shifted to the first Sunday of February; the 2022 season was the first under the 17-game regular season, and the Super Bowl has been in the second week of February ever since.
Upcoming Super Bowls: dates, locations and stadiums
The NFL awards future Super Bowls to a host city several years in advance. As of May 2026, the following games are officially confirmed:
| Game | Date | Stadium | Host city |
|---|---|---|---|
| Super Bowl LXI | February 14, 2027 | SoFi Stadium | Inglewood, California |
| Super Bowl LXII | February 13, 2028 | Mercedes-Benz Stadium | Atlanta, Georgia |
| Super Bowl LXIII | February 11, 2029 | Allegiant Stadium | Las Vegas, Nevada |
| Super Bowl LXIV | February 2030 | New Nissan Stadium | Nashville, Tennessee |
| Super Bowl LXV | February 2031 | TBD (bids open) | TBD |
Super Bowl LXV (2031) had not been awarded to a host city as of May 2026 — New Orleans, Nashville and Washington, D.C. have all been involved in the bidding process.
A brief history of the Super Bowl
The Super Bowl exists because of the 1966 AFL–NFL Merger Agreement. The two leagues had been competing for talent and TV deals through the early 1960s; merging meant a single league and, critically, a single championship game between the two conferences. The first game — later renamed Super Bowl I — was played on January 15, 1967 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, with the Green Bay Packers beating the Kansas City Chiefs 35–10.
The name “Super Bowl” is generally credited to Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, reportedly inspired by his daughter’s Super Ball toy. It was first used informally before being adopted officially for Super Bowl III in January 1969. Roman numerals (Super Bowl L was a one-off exception in 2016) have been used since Super Bowl V.
The Super Bowl has been the most-watched US TV broadcast every year since 2010, regularly drawing over 100 million viewers domestically. The Vince Lombardi Trophy — awarded to the winning team since Super Bowl I — is named after Vince Lombardi, the Green Bay Packers coach who won the first two Super Bowls.
NFL season structure leading to the Super Bowl
The road to the Super Bowl runs through a fixed sequence:
- Preseason: three exhibition games per team, usually August.
- Regular season: 17 games over 18 weeks, early September to early January.
- Wild Card weekend: 6 games (3 per conference), mid-January.
- Divisional round: 4 games, late January.
- Conference Championships: 2 games (AFC and NFC), late January.
- Pro Bowl Games week: off week between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl.
- Super Bowl Sunday: the second Sunday of February under the current schedule.
Fourteen teams (seven from each conference) make the playoffs. The top seed in each conference receives a first-round bye, with the other 12 teams playing on Wild Card weekend.
Halftime show, ads and viewing
The Super Bowl halftime show has been headlined by a single major artist or group since Michael Jackson’s performance at Super Bowl XXVII in 1993 — the show credited with making the slot a destination event in its own right. Recent headliners include Kendrick Lamar (Super Bowl LIX, 2025), Usher (LVIII, 2024), Rihanna (LVII, 2023) and the Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg ensemble (LVI, 2022).
Commercials during the Super Bowl have been priced at $7–$8 million per 30-second spot in recent years, up from roughly $4 million a decade earlier. The game itself is broadcast on a rotating basis among the major US networks — ABC and ESPN will simulcast Super Bowl LXI in 2027.
Sources & references
- NFL.com — Super Bowl — official NFL Super Bowl hub with schedule, tickets and history.
- NFL Football Operations — Super Bowl — league office source for host city announcements, dates and historical results.
- Pro-Football-Reference — Super Bowl index — box scores, dates and venues for every Super Bowl from I to present.
FAQs
Super Bowl LXI is scheduled for Sunday, February 14, 2027 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. It will be the second Super Bowl hosted at SoFi Stadium (after Super Bowl LVI in 2022) and the first Super Bowl played on Valentine’s Day.
The NFL has played its regular season and playoffs on Sundays since the league’s earliest decades, partly because Sunday was traditionally a non-work day with fewer competing live events. The Super Bowl simply follows the rest of the schedule — it is played on the Sunday after the two conference championship games. The NFL has never seriously proposed moving it off Sunday, in part because Sunday primetime delivers the largest available US TV audience of the year.
The first Super Bowl — retroactively renamed Super Bowl I — was played on January 15, 1967 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, with the Green Bay Packers defeating the Kansas City Chiefs 35–10. The game itself was a product of the 1966 AFL–NFL Merger Agreement, which combined the rival American Football League and National Football League. Lamar Hunt, founder of the AFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, is credited with coining the name “Super Bowl”.
Until 2021, the NFL regular season was 16 games long over 17 weeks, putting the Super Bowl in the last Sunday of January or first Sunday of February. The 2021 collective bargaining agreement extended the regular season to 17 games over 18 weeks, pushing every playoff round back by one week. Since then the Super Bowl has typically fallen on the second Sunday of February.
Face value for standard Super Bowl seats has run roughly $1,000–$8,000 in recent years, but very few tickets sell at face value — almost all reach fans through the resale market. Get-in prices on the secondary market typically start around $5,000–$8,000, with lower-bowl and premium seats often selling for $15,000–$30,000+. Prices vary year-to-year based on the matchup, host city and stadium capacity.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots are tied at the top with six Super Bowl titles each. The Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers each have five. Of the original AFL teams, the Kansas City Chiefs have been the most successful in the modern era, including back-to-back wins in Super Bowls LVII and LVIII.