30-Second Super Bowl 2023 Ads Cost More Than Your Lifetime Savings

And thanks to a year of stellar ratings for the NFL, both for the regular season and the playoffs, these ads are very, very expensive.

The peak prices for them surpass $7 million for a 30-second spot – a staggering number, exceeding what the vast majority of people can hope to save in a lifetime. The average pricing is almost as high – it is somewhere between $6 million and $7 million for 30 seconds.

The information regarding these prices comes from Fox Sports' EVP of Ad Sales Mark Evans. He also mentioned that the official sellout of ad spots happened during the week of January 23. Curiously, while 95% of Super Bowl ad spots have been taken all the way back in September, it took four months to sell the rest.

As for why that happened after an exceptionally rapid start, Evans explained that some advertisers went through shakeups in that time. Just look case at the cryptocurrency and that sector's best-known brand, FTX – FTX apparently wanted to buy Super Bowl ads before the scandal and the bankruptcy hit. Furthermore, through the fall general economic conditions remained uncertain, and so were some of the potential ad buyers.

"As things have now settled down a bit and people feel better about the economic trajectory, a few of those units that were available picked up in earnest," Mark Evans explained.

In any case, whatever clouds may gather over the economy at large, Fox will certainly profit handsomely from those ads. At the moment, Fox, NBC and CBS air the Super Bowl in a three-network rotation, but there are new rights deals, which call for ABC and ESPN to join the group in 2026.

Now, however, it is Fox' turn to reap the ad revenues. You're going to see ads for many familiar things, from beer to streaming services during this Super Bowl. As for the specific number of ads during the game, Evans did not provide it, saying instead that it was similar to that of recent Super Bowls.