The fight back of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots from 25 points down in the 3^rd quarter contributed to the 111.3 million viewers of Super Bowl 51.

According to Time, the high number of viewers of the NFL championship game was attributed to the big comeback of New England in the game. The Atlanta Falcons were the dominant team through the first three quarters. Down 21-0 at halftime, Brady led the charge with two touchdowns in quick succession. The game eventually went to overtime, the first Super Bowl to reach sudden death in NFL history. During overtime, New England scored first to complete the comeback.

Fox 43 revealed that Super Bowl 51 was the fourth most watched broadcast in television history. Last year's Super Bowl, won by the Denver Broncos, drew in 111.9 million viewers, the third most watched Super Bowl broadcast. Incidentally, it was also the Patriots that was involved in the biggest number of viewers in history with 114.4 million views.

Initially, everyone thought that the ratings for Super Bowl 51 would drop as Atlanta stormed to a 21-0 lead at halftime. But then again Tom Brady increased the audience interest level by helping his team mount a comeback. IAccording to Variety, Super Bowl 51 gained an average streaming audience of 1.7 million and another 650,000 on Fox Deportes. The halftime show was a record-breaker in itself. Lady Gaga's performance attracted 117.5 million viewers next to Katy Perry's performance, which generated 118.5 million views, in the 2015 edition. It also won two Emmy Awards in September of that year. 

Over the years, the Super Bowl had been drawing huge audiences since its pilot broadcast in 1967. However, it was only in 2010 when viewership ratings reached the 100 million mark when the New Orleans Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl 44.