Tube Trends: Has Super Bowl Finally Become ‘Creator Bowl?’
You could imagine why everyone involved with the Super Bowl has long expressed some hesitance around inviting the creator economy into TV’s largest event of the year.
In an environment where traditional TV has been progressively losing more footing to digital platforms, user-generated content and short-form video, the Super Bowl — and live NFL games, in general — are among the few remaining safe havens for networks and advertisers.
Just the same, the NFL has taken a measured approach to embracing more digital video content. And if September’s (free) YouTube-exclusive game was just an appetizer, then the Super Bowl is the main course in the league’s continued evolution toward embracing creators.
Creating The Creator Bowl
On Thursday, the NFL announced (via an exclusive with The Hollywood Reporter) that it would be bringing over 160 creators to Super Bowl XL this year in an effort to boost engagement across social platforms. Among the big names included in these initiatives so far is social video giant Dhar Mann, plus breakout stars like Robert Irwin, Max Klymenko and Nicky Campbell.
The shift has been a long time coming for the NFL, really.
Tubular Labs data shows that over the course of the current season, the NFL and all 32 teams combined for about 23 billion video views across platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. While that number is huge, individual creators generated over 34 billion about the NFL (without including posts around individual teams) over the same timeframe and on the same platforms.
The NFL still owns its enormous audience, yes. But creators are the way in the door for younger audiences to engage with the league’s content. And the NFL has developed a clear understanding of this dynamic lately by going directly to them for partnerships, rather than losing those audiences to be owned entirely by external sources.
In that regard, the NFL’s new creator economy approach almost uses these individual creators as unique network partners ultimately funneling their disparate (and sometimes niche) fan followings into the same league video ecosystem at the end of the day.
The NFL also generating significantly more video content about itself also helps normalize and support a change in hows audiences engage with their content.
During the 2024-25 season (including the playoffs and Super Bowl), Tubular data shows the league and its teams accounted for about 18 billion views; or a 28% difference season-over-season before the 2025-26 even concludes.
Empowering the league and its teams to be more video focused is clearly translating to views that the NFL can own, without taking away from the creator economy that already exists in its orbit — which is what makes its creator efforts at this Super Bowl even more appealing for everyone involved.
By partnering with the league, creators are getting exposed to new audiences that may not have been watching otherwise.
Tubular Labs “audience also watches” data shows very limited overlap in the last six months between Dhar Mann and NFL viewers. Even if a fraction of the NFL’s massive audience starts watching Mann’s videos more frequently, it’s a win for him that far outpaces what he’s likely earning for this Super Bowl partnership.
But the Super Bowl’s creator growth has also exploded beyond these content plays as well.
Creators Increase TV Ad Footprint
Salesforce, a recent Big Game fixture, has handed over their ad to YouTube giant MrBeast. Even with the obvious video extensions that partnership has already provided, the move will put the creator economy on center stage during the game, too.
MrBeast (real name: Jimmy Donaldson) previously appeared in a Super Bowl spot from the NFL itself, and is one of a slew of creators to appear during TV ads in recent years.
Data from Extreme Reach’s recent State of Pay report points out that content creators have seen overall creator ad pay surge 103% since 2022. And creators have appeared in at least one Super Bowl spot for three straight years now.
Even if Donaldson doesn’t actually appear in the Salesforce spot (seems unlikely) in a week, it’ll be a fourth straight Super Bowl with at least one ad featuring creator talent.
Among the confirmed spots already, creator/podcaster/former reality TV star Paige DeSorbo will be in Kinder Bueno’s ad, and there are likely more to come, too.
