Sunday's Super Bowl was undoubtedly awesome. Big comeback. Dramatic finish. Weird NFL rules. Beyoncé. The question on everyone's mind: Was it the best Super Bowl ever?
To figure this out, we used an updated version of our watchability rankings, which measured games on quality of play (for viewers) regardless of the narratives coming into the contest. Each game was scored on a 0-100 scale. Here's the new methodology:
- Upset (15 points): Determined by the difference between the final score and the betting line, with a bonus given to true upsets. Super Bowl III, in which Joe Namath led the Jets to a 16-7 win over the Colts despite being 18-point underdogs, gets a perfect 15.
- Shootout (25 points): Based on the total points scored, because people like offense. The otherwise terrible Super Bowl XXIX, with 75 points scored in total, gets a perfect 25.
- Closeness (50 points): Clearly the most important category. Determined by the worst fourth-quarter point differential faced by the game's eventual winner. Two teams have come back from seven-point deficits in the final quarter to take the title (Baltimore in Super Bowl V, 49ers in Super Bowl XXIII). These games get perfect 50s.
- The Wire (10 point): To further reward closeness, 10 points are awarded for the four Super Bowls (1991, 2000, 2002, and 2004) that came down to the game's final, non-Hail Mary/kickoff return play. Games in which the lead changed on the final major drive got a five, and games that were close toward the very end but fizzled out in the last few minutes got a 1. The distribution of 1's is, admittedly, a little subjective.
Based on this methodology, here are the top 12 Super Bowls of all time:
Our rankings put Super Bowl XLVII at eighth, maybe not the best ever, but certainly one of the best. Super Bowl XXXVIII (2004), in which an insane 37 points were scored in the fourth quarter and the game ended on a 41-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri, comes in at No. 1. The "wide right" game (1991) take the second spot, and Super Bowl XXXVI (2002), won again on Vinatieri's toe in a huge upset of the Rams, comes in third. While this methodology is imperfect—Super Bowl XIII and Super Bowl XXXIV probably come in too low, for example—the top rankings track closely with the lists put together by some other journalists, such as SI's Richard Rothschild.
The chart above raises another question: Are we living in the golden age of the Super Bowl? Below is a graph of the five-year average for Super Bowl watchability, the combined quality of the game for each year, the two years prior, and the two years post:
Sure enough, after a rough period from 1993 to 1997, the Super Bowl has gotten more and more watchable (per our metric). However, since our rankings place Super Bowl XLII (2008) just ahead of this year's game, by our measurement the very best five-year stretch of Super Bowls was 2008-2012. The worst period was 1984-1988, when the Raiders, 49ers, Bears, Giants, and Redskins won in five consecutive blowouts.
You can check out detailed results here. Full rankings below:
| Rank | Bowl | Year | Winner | Loser | Upset | Score | Close | Wire | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | XXXVIII | 2004 | New England 32 | Carolina 29 | 7 | 19 | 40 | 10 | 76 | |
| 2 | XXV | 1991 | N.Y. Giants 20 | Buffalo 19 | 10 | 8 | 42 | 10 | 70 | |
| 3 | XXXVI | 2002 | New England 20 | St. Louis 17 | 13 | 7 | 39 | 10 | 69 | |
| 4 | XLIII | 2009 | Pittsburgh 27 | Arizona 23 | 7 | 13 | 44 | 5 | 69 | |
| 5 | XXIII | 1989 | San Francisco 20 | Cincinnati 16 | 7 | 7 | 50 | 5 | 69 | |
| 6 | XXXII | 1998 | Denver 31 | Green Bay 24 | 12 | 16 | 39 | 1 | 67 | |
| 7 | XLII | 2008 | N.Y. Giants 17 | New England 14 | 12 | 5 | 45 | 5 | 67 | |
| 8 | XLVII | 2013 | Baltimore 34 | San Francisco 31 | 8 | 20 | 35 | 1 | 65 | |
| 9 | XVII | 1983 | Washington 27 | Miami 17 | 8 | 11 | 45 | 0 | 63 | |
| 10 | XXXIV | 2000 | St. Louis 23 | Tennessee 16 | 6 | 8 | 39 | 10 | 63 | |
| 11 | XLVI | 2012 | N.Y. Giants 21 | New England 17 | 7 | 8 | 42 | 5 | 62 | |
| 12 | XLIV | 2010 | New Orleans 31 | Indianapolis 17 | 9 | 13 | 40 | 0 | 61 | |
| 13 | XIV | 1980 | Pittsburgh 31 | L.A. Rams 19 | 6 | 13 | 42 | 0 | 61 | |
| 14 | V | 1971 | Baltimore 16 | Dallas 13 | 6 | 4 | 50 | 1 | 61 | |
| 15 | X | 1976 | Pittsburgh 21 | Dallas 17 | 7 | 8 | 44 | 1 | 59 | |
| 16 | XIII | 1979 | Pittsburgh 35 | Dallas 31 | 6 | 21 | 32 | 0 | 59 | |
| 17 | XXXIX | 2005 | New England 24 | Philadelphia 21 | 7 | 11 | 39 | 0 | 57 | |
| 18 | XLV | 2011 | Green Bay 31 | Pittsburgh 25 | 5 | 16 | 34 | 1 | 56 | |
| 19 | XXX | 1996 | Dallas 27 | Pittsburgh 17 | 7 | 11 | 34 | 0 | 52 | |
| 20 | XXXVII | 2003 | Tampa Bay 48 | Oakland 21 | 8 | 22 | 18 | 0 | 48 | |
| 21 | XVI | 1982 | San Francisco 26 | Cincinnati 21 | 5 | 12 | 31 | 0 | 48 | |
| 22 | XLI | 2007 | Indianapolis 29 | Chicago 17 | 5 | 12 | 31 | 0 | 47 | |
| 23 | XXVIII | 1994 | Dallas 30 | Buffalo 13 | 5 | 10 | 27 | 0 | 42 | |
| 24 | XL | 2006 | Pittsburgh 21 | Seattle 10 | 4 | 5 | 32 | 0 | 41 | |
| 25 | XXVI | 1992 | Washington 37 | Buffalo 24 | 5 | 19 | 18 | 0 | 41 | |
| 26 | XXXIII | 1999 | Denver 34 | Atlanta 19 | 4 | 15 | 21 | 0 | 40 | |
| 27 | IX | 1975 | Pittsburgh 16 | Minnesota 6 | 4 | 0 | 34 | 0 | 39 | |
| 28 | XXXI | 1997 | Green Bay 35 | New England 21 | 6 | 16 | 16 | 0 | 38 | |
| 29 | XXVII | 1993 | Dallas 52 | Buffalo 17 | 0 | 22 | 16 | 0 | 38 | |
| 30 | XXI | 1987 | N.Y. Giants 39 | Denver 20 | 4 | 18 | 13 | 0 | 34 | |
| 31 | III | 1969 | N.Y. Jets 16 | Baltimore 7 | 15 | 1 | 18 | 0 | 34 | |
| 32 | XI | 1977 | Oakland 32 | Minnesota 14 | 3 | 12 | 19 | 0 | 34 | |
| 33 | XII | 1978 | Dallas 27 | Denver 10 | 3 | 7 | 23 | 0 | 33 | |
| 34 | VII | 1973 | Miami 14 | Washington 7 | 5 | 0 | 27 | 1 | 33 | |
| 35 | XXIX | 1995 | San Francisco 49 | San Diego 26 | 5 | 25 | 2 | 0 | 32 | |
| 36 | XV | 1981 | Oakland 27 | Philadelphia 10 | 8 | 7 | 16 | 0 | 31 | |
| 37 | IV | 1970 | Kansas City 23 | Minnesota 7 | 12 | 4 | 13 | 0 | 29 | |
| 38 | XVIII | 1984 | L.A. Raiders 38 | Washington 9 | 8 | 12 | 8 | 0 | 28 | |
| 39 | II | 1968 | Green Bay 33 | Oakland 14 | 5 | 12 | 8 | 0 | 25 | |
| 40 | I | 1967 | Green Bay 35 | Kansas City 10 | 3 | 11 | 10 | 0 | 24 | |
| 41 | XXII | 1988 | Washington 42 | Denver 10 | 8 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 22 | |
| 42 | VI | 1972 | Dallas 24 | Miami 3 | 2 | 3 | 16 | 0 | 21 | |
| 43 | XXXV | 2001 | Baltimore 34 | N.Y. Giants 7 | 0 | 9 | 11 | 0 | 21 | |
| 44 | XXIV | 1990 | San Francisco 55 | Denver 10 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 20 | |
| 45 | XIX | 1985 | San Francisco 38 | Miami 16 | 2 | 15 | 3 | 0 | 20 | |
| 46 | VIII | 1974 | Miami 24 | Minnesota 7 | 4 | 5 | 11 | 0 | 19 | |
| 47 | XX | 1986 | Chicago 46 | New England 10 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 16 |
Earlier: All 256 Regular-Season NFL Games, Ranked According To Watchability