NBC aired the 2026 Super Bowl and sold its advertising time. How much it charged depends on whom you read. Semafor reported that NBCUniversal sold out at around $7 million per 30-second slot. MediaPost, citing USA Today’s Ad Meter, put NBC’s record price at $8 million to $10 million for the same 30 seconds.

MediaPost’s figures point upward. In 2023, by the same USA Today count, 30 seconds sold for what MediaPost called a relatively low $7 million.

Why advertisers keep paying more

Scarcity of a mass audience is the reason Semafor gives. As viewing splinters across services, the game is one of the few broadcasts that still draws a shared national audience, so its airtime gains value.

The calendar shows the demand. NBCUniversal said in September 2025 that every slot for the February game was already gone. A year earlier, Fox had sold out its 2025 Super Bowl inventory by August. The Ankler described the 2026 market as its biggest year yet, with inventory selling out earlier than before.

What the biggest buyers paid

Novo Nordisk made the largest purchase of 2026. It bought a 90-second spot for its Wegovy weight-loss pill, which MediaPost reckoned could cost close to $30 million. That made it a candidate for the largest single advert purchase in television history.

Ninety-second spots are rare. Amazon ran one in 2023, and General Motors and Google did so earlier in the decade.

Length is only part of the price. Tyler Bobin of iSpot told MediaPost that earlier ad breaks are usually worth more, especially the one before halftime. Attention can fall away sharply if the game turns into a rout.

Donald Trump’s campaign spent $10 million on airtime for two Super Bowl spots before the 2020 election. For 2026, Semafor reported that a group tied to his administration planned a pre-game advert for the Trump Accounts scheme. Because it fell before kick-off, the group likely paid below the $7 million in-game rate.

Who earns less from the boom

The money does not flow evenly. The Ankler reported that the celebrities hired to star in these adverts are often paid less than before, even as the airtime costs more. For the stars, a Super Bowl spot has become a status symbol, and agents negotiate each deal without a rate card.

The open question is whether the next network to hold the game can push past NBC’s ceiling, or whether advertisers finally stop paying more.