Absence apparently made Boston fans’ hearts grow fonder for Tom Brady.

This year’s Super Bowl rating in Boston was higher than all but one of Tom Brady’s nine title games as a Patriot.

Boston posted a 57.6 TV rating, beating out the 52.3 rating from his new hometown fanbase in Tampa Bay.

Both marks were eclipsed by Kansas City, however, which recorded a 59.9 rating on the night. 

• Super Bowl viewership reached 100 million for the first time in 2010 and hit that mark every year through 2020 — except 2019, which saw the lowest-scoring Super Bowl ever. 
• Viewership has been declining among people 18-49 — from around 50 million in 2010-2013, down to below 40 million in 2019 and 2020.
• NFL regular season viewership averaged 15.4 million, down 7% from the previous year and the first drop since 2017. 

The NFL has held up better than other major sports leagues. Despite people being stuck inside, sports viewership was down significantly across the board in 2020. 

The World Series struggled to attract viewers in the truncated MLB season: the deciding game averaged 13.2 million viewers, down from 23.2 million the previous year. NBA and NHL playoff watchers declined 37% and 38% respectively, with NBA Finals viewership cut in half, down to 7.5 million.

National TV ratings for this year’s Big Game hadn’t been released as of Monday night. “Super Bowl numbers are still being processed and verified,” a Nielsen spokesperson told Front Office Sports. The final tally, including out-of-home viewing, is expected today.

Domestic broadcasting rights to Italy’s top-tier soccer league are in high demand.

Serie A’s 2021-24 rights are up for grabs and the league is expected to discuss finalists this week, hoping to capitalize on mounting interest and help offset pandemic losses. 

DAZN is reportedly the leading bidder, but SKY — a unit of U.S.-based Comcast — is keeping it close. The two have shared Serie A rights for the past three years.

Though Serie A is targeting $1.38 billion per season, DAZN’s high bid was $705.8 million to stream all matches, and SKY offered roughly $622.8 million to air games across multiple platforms.

Discovery and MediaPro are also in talks for the bid. Amazon was previously reported to be interested, but only wanted a “limited package,” which wasn’t enough for the league.

“I think there is room to improve the offers,” Serie A chief executive Luigi De Siervo told the Italian press. “They were not so bad as some could expect given the situation with the coronavirus pandemic.”

Late last week, the Serie A conversation shifted when a private equity consortium threatened to walk back on its approximately $2 billion deal for 10% of the league’s new broadcast rights company.

The sports card industry is booming, and the asking price for Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes rookie cards skyrocketed during Super Bowl 55.

Over the past year, the average price of a PSA 10 Brady rookie card — the highest graded condition of which just 1,060 exist  — was $7,500, according to Professional Sports Authenticator. A Mahomes rookie card of similar value has 853 in circulation at an average price of $9,500. 

Those prices drastically increased during the buildup to the Super Bowl and continued to surge after kickoff. 

• A 2000 Bowman Chrome Brady PSA 10 rookie sold for $24,999 during the game. Two others sold for $28,000.
• eBay is currently listing similarly graded Brady rookie cards for a minimum of $15,000, and a high asking price of $100,000. 
• Mahomes’ card started the day at $14,999. A 2017 Panini Prizm Mahomes rookie is currently listed at $99,999, even after the quarterback’s loss to the Buccaneers. 
• Last week, a different Mahomes rookie card, of which there are only five, sold for $861,000 — the most expensive football card in history.

Rookie cards for athletes in the “greatest of all time” discussion have brought the industry a series of high watermarks, beyond just football.

In January, two Michael Jordan rookie cards by Fleer each sold for a record $738,000.

Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, and Take-Two Interactive are reaping the benefits of a potential customer base that now includes 2.69 billion gamers worldwide, per Statista. 

EA engaged more than 230 million players this past fiscal year and generated $1.67 billion in revenue during Q3 FY21. The numbers were driven by the growth of “Apex Legends” and the Ultimate Team modes in both “Madden” and “FIFA.” 

• In December, “FIFA Ultimate Team” saw a record of nearly 6 million daily active players.
• “Apex Legends” saw 30% year-over-year growth in new players.

Activision Blizzard reported even better earnings on the strength of the “Call of Duty” franchise, raking in $3.05 billion in revenue for its Q4 ending December 2020. 

• The franchise saw more than 100 million monthly active players and drove net bookings to approximately double last year’s level.
• “Call of Duty” premium unit sales grew more than 40% year-over-year.

Take-Two Interactive, the operation behind the “Grand Theft Auto” and “NBA 2K” series, reported $860.9 million in revenue in its Q3 earnings report.

“Grand Theft Auto V” was originally released in 2013, but sold more than one million copies last year. “NBA 2K21” has sold more than eight million copies since its November release.

The integration of free-to-play options, premium content, and the launch of Sony and Microsoft’s next-gen consoles has bolstered the biggest publishers’ bottom lines.