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The Kansas City Chiefs have a chance to make history this weekend. And hundreds of millions will be watching.
But what is the Super Bowl? Who is competing? And how much are tickets? We answer these questions and more…
What is the Super Bowl?
It’s the biggest game of the American football calendar.
The annual league championship takes place between the top two National Football League (NFL) sides.
There are 32 teams in the NFL, divided into two conferences: the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC).
Seven teams from each conference enter the play-offs, with the last team standing in each competing in the Super Bowl.
The AFC’s New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers are the most successful teams, with six titles each.
Who is in this year’s Super Bowl?
Super Bowl 59 will pit defending champions the Kansas City Chiefs against the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Chiefs could become the first team in history to win three consecutive Super Bowl titles.
The last time the Eagles won the Super Bowl was in 2018. They were beaten in 2023 by the Chiefs.
How long is the Super Bowl?
It’s tricky to say.
The match itself is split into four 15-minute quarters, with a long break for the half-time performance. The clock also stops at various points due to on-field play, as well as for commercial breaks.
The game itself can last anywhere between three and four hours.
If scores are level at the end of the 60 minutes, an additional 15-minute overtime period will be played.
Regular-season NFL games can end in a tie but for the Super Bowl, teams will play several periods of overtime until a winner is decided.
Last year’s Super Bowl 58 was the last to be decided through overtime, when the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers 25-22.
Where is it being played?
The Super Bowl is back in New Orleans, Louisiana – the 11th time the city has hosted.
The location changes every year, and is decided through a bidding process run by the NFL.
Taking into account the 2025 event, New Orleans and Miami are the two cities who have hosted the most Super Bowls over the championship’s history.
The game will be played at New Orleans’ 75,000-capacity Superdome stadium – home to NFL side the New Orleans Saints.
Is it the biggest sports event in the world?
For US audiences, yes.
An estimated 123 million people in the US watched last year’s Super Bowl. That made it the most-watched broadcast since the 1969 moon landing.
But Super Bowl audiences are largely made up of domestic viewers, and are eclipsed by the global TV audiences of the 2022 men’s World Cup final – which was watched by an estimated 1.5 billion people.
Why is it called the ‘Super Bowl’?
The NFL used to be split into two organisations – the National Football League (NFL) and the American Football League (AFL).
After a merger agreement in 1966, the winner of both leagues would go head to head in an end-of-season match originally known as the AFL-NFL Championship game.
Lamar Hunt, the founder of the AFL and former owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, is the man credited with eventually naming this match the ‘Super Bowl’.
It has been reported the inspiration for the name came from seeing his children play with a ‘Super Ball’ toy.
In a piece Hunt wrote, external for the New York Times in 1986, he said it was in a committee meeting where he first put forward the ‘Super Bowl’ title.
“In a word, it was accidental… I do not recall any predetermined thought relative to this rather unhistoric moment,” he said.
“It probably registered in my head because my daughter and son had a children’s toy called a Super Ball and I probably interchanged the phonetics of ‘bowl’ and ‘ball’.”
But the name caught on. The 1969 match was the first AFL-NFL game that was officially called the Super Bowl.
Who is performing at the half-time show?
Super Bowl half-time lasts about 30 minutes, with various music artists performing a 10-15-minute set.
This year’s headline act Kendrick Lamar will be playing to a crowd including both Taylor Swift and President Donald Trump.
The Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning artist performed at the 2022 hal-time show alongside Dr Dre, Snoop Dog and Mary J Blige.
But it will be Kendrick Lamar’s first time as the headline act.
He is expected to be joined on stage by multi Grammy winner SZA.
How much are Super Bowl tickets?
They’re renowned for being expensive – and difficult for people to get their hands on.
The prices vary each year, depending which teams are playing and where the game is.
On Wednesday, Super Bowl tickets were listed on StubHub for between £2,000 and £10,000. The most expensive was listed at £52,079, giving you a pitchside view.
The league also gives away 500 tickets.
How much is a Super Bowl advert?
The costs are notoriously eve-watering.
Boasting the highest US TV audience figures each year, competitors are prepared to pay for unique brand exposure.
For this year’s game, more than 10 Super Bowl commercial spots have been sold for over £6.4m ($8m).
As a cultural event as well as a sporting one, the adverts are part of the Super Bowl experience.
According to an Ipsos study from December 2024,, external almost a quarter of people who watch the Super Bowl watch all the commercials, with 11% saying it’s their primary reason for watching the event.
More questions answered…
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