TPUSA’s All-American Halftime Show becomes highest-watched US YouTube livestream with 6.17 MILLION concurrent viewers

Sunday marked Super Bowl LX, with Turning Point USA holding its All-American Halftime Show as an alternative to this year’s performer, Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny. The stream on YouTube brought in over 6.17 million concurrent viewers at its peak, making the performance the second-highest stream in terms of peak concurrent viewers on the platform of all time, and the highest in the US.

The stream edged out one from 2022 that brought in 6.15 million peak concurrent viewers for a commentary watch-along stream for the Brazil World Cup quarterfinals. The stream with the highest peak concurrent viewers is from India’s lunar landing broadcast in 2023, which reached 8.09 million peak concurrent viewers.

 

In addition, the stream was also the number one entertainment event in YouTube history, the number one American event in YouTube history, and the number one English language livestream in YouTube history. 

Per Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet, the show has brought in over 25 million viewers between YouTube and Rumble alone. Kolvet said, "Based on tonight’s success, we have committed to running it back again next year. The All-American Halftime Show will be back in 2027."

The show featured performances by Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett, and was announced back in October as a celebration of "faith, family, and freedom" in opposition to the Super Bowl’s chosen performer, Bad Bunny. Kid Rock closed out his performance with a rendition of Til You Can't, which went on to hit the top slot in iTunes, defeating Bad Bunny's DtMF. Kid Rock added a verse to the end of the song, which was originally performed by Cody Johnson. The verse said, "There's a book that's sitting in your house somewhere that could use some dusting off / There's a man that died for all our sins hanging from the cross / You can give your life to Jesus and he'll give you a second chance / 'Til you can't, 'til you can’t."
 

Fans watched the performance at Kid Rock’s Nashville, Tennessee bar, and were seen singing along with his performance. 

Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk wrote in the wake of the show, "The TPUSA All-American Halftime Show was so incredible. Charlie would’ve absolutely loved it. Thank you to the millions that tuned in. I’m so proud of our entire team, staff, and the artists who believed in the vision and mission."

She added, "It’s okay to love Jesus and your country. Ultimately, this is what it’s all about, making Heaven crowded. I love you Charlie baby, this is all for you."

Bad Bunny's selection as the Super Bowl Halftime Show performer received backlash. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell defended the decision, saying it was "carefully thought through," adding, "I’m not sure we’ve ever selected an artist where we didn’t have some blowback or criticism." Bad Bunny has come under fire for skipping out on the USA during his tour over concerns that ICE would make arrests at them, sitting down at a Yankee’s game in October during a rendition of "God Bless America," and telling Americans ahead of the Super Bowl that they have "four months to learn" Spanish if they wanted to understand the performance, which was almost entirely in Spanish.