The Falcon And The Winter Soldier's Super Bowl Trailer Smashed A Viewing Record
In the wake of WandaVision's dominance of the pop culture conversation since its premiere in mid-January, the world is on pins and needles as it waits for the debut of Marvel's next Disney+ series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Set to debut on the streaming service on March 19, the series will determine who the next Captain America will be as Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie reprise their fan-favorite roles of Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson, respectively. Over the course of the show's six episodes, the two friends of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) team up to take on a new threat: a group called the Flag-Smashers.
With only a few weeks until its debut, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which also stars Daniel Brühl as his Captain America: Civil War character Baron Zemo, dropped a new full-length trailer during the 2021 Super Bowl. What happens when you combine the fervor of the Big Game with the excitement of an impending Marvel release starring two of the franchise's most beloved characters? Record-setting viewership numbers, apparently.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier crushed Star Wars' record
Deadline reports that the Super Bowl trailer for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and the shorter TV spot that aired during the game on February 7 racked up 125 million views in the 24 hours following their debut, setting a record for a streaming series.
This easily beats the numbers for last year's Black Widow Super Bowl trailer, which brought in 119 million views in the first 24 hours, and more than twice eclipsed the 53 million views the WandaVision trailer earned when it aired during the Primetime Emmys last September.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier even managed to best the teaser for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which brought in 111 million views in the first 24 hours after it was released at Star Wars Celebration in 2019. Take from that what you will.
Meanwhile, EDO, which measures the increase in online search activity for a brand or a product immediately after a TV ad airs, found that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier trailer was the fifth most-searched Super Bowl spot on Sunday within five minutes of it airing during the game's first quarter, with viewership numbers that were six times the viewing average.
These numbers might not seem all that impressive, but they are; the top of EDO's list usually belongs to the big brand-name ads that air during the Super Bowl rather than simple trailers. For instance, Jeep's Bruce Springsteen ad came in at no. 3, while Cadillac's ad featuring the son of Edward Scissorhands was no. 4. That Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson managed to compete with the Boss and Timothée Chalamet is a big deal. Of course, anyone who's ever seen a Marvel movie featuring those two likely could have told you this was bound to happen.