How Long Does the Super Bowl Last?

The Super Bowl has come to dominate the sporting landscape, grabbing eyeballs and commercial dollars when the NFL Championship is decided.

This is an event for all the family, when even non-football fans take an interest in the greatest show on turf. But just how much of your Sunday evening will you need to dedicate to watching the Super Bowl?

We have trawled through the stats and figures to give you the answers!

Super Bowl Times Since 2015

Of course the Super Bowl – like any other game of football – runs for 60 minutes of in-play action. However, to that we need to add approximately 2 to 2 and a half hours of additional time for timeouts, play reviews, injuries, and TV commercials.

The last eight Super Bowls which were finished in normal time averaged 3 hours 33 minutes from kick off to the final whistle. The outliers were the two games that went into overtime, including Super Bowl LVIII between the Chiefs and 49ers, which set a record for the longest Championship game ever played.

Year	Teams	Result	Duration (hours:minutes)
2015	New England Patriots vs. Seattle Seahawks	28-24	3:36
2016	Denver Broncos vs. Carolina Panthers	24-10	3:43
2017	New England Patriots vs. Atlanta Falcons	34-28 (OT)	3:47
2018	Philadelphia Eagles vs. New England Patriots	41-33	3:32
2019	New England Patriots vs. Los Angeles Rams	13-3	3:32
2020	Kansas City Chiefs vs. San Francisco 49ers	31-20	3:29
2021	Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Kansas City Chiefs	31-9	3:35
2022	Los Angeles Rams vs. Cincinnati Bengals	23-20	3:26
2023	Kansas City Chiefs vs. Philadelphia Eagles	38-35	3:31
2024	Kansas City Chiefs vs. San Francisco 49ers	27-24 (OT)	4:06

Safe to conclude that in terms of game time, as long as the game doesn’t go into overtime then the Super Bowl will last around 3 and a half hours. The fastest Super Bowl ever clocked in at 3 hours and 14 minutes, but anything less than 3 and a half hours is pretty uncommon.

How Long is the Half Time Show?

The halftime show has become almost as integral a part of the Super Bowl as the game itself. The musical performance has figured a who’s who of the entertainment industry, with a wide range of genres featuring over the years.

However, what has remained relatively consistent in the past ten years has been the length of time of the show, reliably coming in at just under half an hour every year, including the time it takes to set up the stage.

Year	Super Bowl	Performers	Halftime Performance Duration	Total Halftime Break
2014	XLVIII	Bruno Mars, Red Hot Chili Peppers	~13 minutes	~28 minutes
2015	XLIX	Katy Perry, Lenny Kravitz, Missy Elliott	~12 minutes	~30 minutes
2016	50	Coldplay, Beyoncé, Bruno Mars	~14 minutes	~28 minutes
2017	LI	Lady Gaga	~13 minutes	~29 minutes
2018	LII	Justin Timberlake	~14 minutes	~30 minutes
2019	LIII	Maroon 5, Travis Scott, Big Boi	~13 minutes	~28 minutes
2020	LIV	Shakira, Jennifer Lopez	~15 minutes	~30 minutes
2021	LV	The Weeknd	~14 minutes	~29 minutes
2022	LVI	Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar	~15 minutes	~30 minutes
2023	LVII	Rihanna	~14 minutes	~28 minutes

While the actual performance time usually takes 12 to 15 minutes, add up your stage construction and commercials and you are looking at a 30 minute break, which is incorporated into the game time.

Total Length of the Super Bowl

So the game – including half time show – will take around 3 hours 30 minutes to complete. But after putting in that time, you’re gonna want to see the Vince Lombardi trophy being presented to the winners, right? So let’s add in another 15 minutes to set up the trophy presentation and you are looking at somewhere between 3 hours 45 mins and four hours from kick-off to confetti cannons going off.

The Super Bowl starts at 6:30pm Eastern Time every year, and so we can confidently predict it will be wrapped up by 10:30 ET, barring overtime or random events like the New Orleans power blackout.