Game Day Traffic: How the Super Bowl Moved the Internet

The Los Angeles Rams took home the Lombardi Trophy, but the real action on Super Bowl Sunday wasn’t just on the field in Los Angeles. By using DNS name resolution data from Cloudflare Radar, we can estimate how interest in the game, its advertisers, and its accompanying rituals (like food) impacted traffic to major websites. The charts below focus on US traffic, with a baseline set as the mean traffic between 12:00 and 15:00 EST on February 13, 2022.

Looking at the teams themselves, the Bengals website saw spikes before kickoff and again in the second half. The Rams site, however, had the better run, peaking at the final whistle, much like the game itself.

The desire for game-day snacks was clear in the data. Aggregate traffic to food delivery services built steadily, hitting a peak around 17:30—an hour before the 18:30 kickoff—before trailing off, with a slight bump later in the second half.

Sports websites followed a predictable pattern, climbing to a peak as the game began. Traffic then dropped as fans turned their attention to the field, but spiked three times during halftime (between 20:00 and 20:30) as viewers checked scores and analysis. A final peak came after the Rams’ victory was secured.

Video platforms had a similar footprint to sports sites, with two significant peaks during halftime and a third at the game's conclusion. Interestingly, the first post-kickoff peak occurred at nearly the same time as Coinbase’s bouncing QR code commercial aired.

Social media traffic followed a different curve. Aggregate traffic began to dip after 17:00, hitting its lowest point just before kickoff. The biggest spike of the evening came immediately after the Coinbase ad aired. Traffic then dropped again during halftime, rose right before the second half started, and peaked once more after the game concluded.

Messaging services showed less of a pre-game dip than social media. Traffic spiked around 19:00 following the second batch of commercials, then grew steadily through halftime and into the third quarter before declining toward the end of the game. As with other categories, messaging traffic saw another rise after the game ended.

The Commercial Impact

Even with many ads released online before the big day, live commercials still drive significant, immediate traffic to brand websites.

  • Bud Light: Their first ad at 18:52 caused a more than 25x increase in site traffic. A second ad featuring Guy Fieri at 21:00 brought a second peak, with a 15x bump.
  • Pringles: The “stuck hand” commercial at 21:00 resulted in a greater than 35x surge in traffic.
  • Lays: The wedding memories ad at 20:53 drove a 30x increase.
  • Doritos: The singing jungle animals ad at 19:13 generated a 12x traffic boost, though this was less impactful than their 2021 :flat Matthew McConaughey: spot.
  • Cutwater Spirits: This first-time Super Bowl advertiser saw an enormous 800x spike in traffic from its “here’s to the lazy ones” ad.

Financial Services and the QR Code Effect

The Coinbase ad may have lit up social media, but it also drove a 14x increase in traffic to the company’s site. (Note: this analysis does not include drops.coinbase.com, the specific hostname the QR code directed viewers to.)

Other crypto and trading platforms saw smaller bumps. Crypto.com’s LeBron James ad generated a 3x increase, while FTX’s Larry David spot only managed a 1.5x growth. The eToro “to the moon” ad in the second half was more effective, causing a 25x increase (with another 20x bump during halftime).

The biggest winner in this category was Greenlight, a financial services app. An ad featuring Ty Burrell’s “Phil Dunphy” character aired late in the game at 21:45 and drove a massive 140x increase in traffic.

Electric Vehicles Take the Lead

Electric cars were a dominant theme in automotive advertising. BMW’s “Electric Avenue” spot at 18:54 resulted in a 14x traffic increase over baseline. But the clear winner was General Motors. Their Dr. Evil-themed ad drove traffic to a peak of over 400x above baseline.

Other automakers also saw attention: Toyota (5x), Kia (16x), Vroom (70x), and Nissan (30x). However, the biggest spike came from Wallbox, a manufacturer of electric car chargers. Their first-ever Super Bowl ad powered a staggering peak of over 2,500x higher than baseline traffic.

Health, Home, and Entertainment

Several other advertisers had notable impacts:

  • Hologic (health detection) featuring Mary J. Blige saw a 140x traffic spike.
  • Irish Spring soap’s ad drove a nearly 200x increase over baseline.
  • Booking.com saw a 1.6x bump from its Idris Elba spot at 21:23.
  • Movie trailers were popular, but the trailer for Jordan Peele’s Nope led the way with a nearly 40x traffic increase.
  • Cue Health was the unquestioned champion of the night. The COVID-19 testing device company’s ad drove an astronomical 10,000x increase in traffic to their website after it aired.

As in past years, the data confirms that the Super Bowl is as much an internet event as a sporting one, with human behavior—watching, snacking, and reacting to ads—leaving clear fingerprints on traffic patterns across the web. For those interested in these trends, Cloudflare Radar offers up-to-date insights into internet traffic and attacks.