Fact Check: Did Roc Nation lie about Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show being the most-watched?

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA: The Super Bowl LIX witnessed singer Kendrick Lamar becoming the first hip-hop artist to headline the illustrious halftime show on Sunday, February 9.

As the 37-year-old ‘Like That’ singer took the stage at the Caesars Superdome on Sunday night, he thoroughly divided the viewers with his performance. While a section of fans deemed it to be the “worst ever”, another section could not get enough of him boldly dissing his nemesis Drake by performing ‘Not Like Us’. 

For years, the Super Bowl halftime show has been an intrinsic part of the NFL’s flagship Lombardi Trophy as millions of viewers tune in to bask in the entertainment presented in the middle of the match.

Lamar not only rocked the halftime show but has also managed to clock the highest number of viewers in NFL history, according to Roc Nation. 

Soon, however, Jay-Z’s entertainment company came under fire as a section of fans accused the group of fabricating the number to inflate Lamar’s achievement. 

Did Roc Nation lie when they said Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show is most-watched in history?

On Sunday, February 9, the Philadelphia Eagles took on the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs in the high-voltage clash, eventually defeating them to win the Super Bowl. 

Millions of viewers tuned in to watch the match, along with watching Lamar’s halftime show. 

As expected, the viewership wasn’t a paltry number, with Roc Nation claiming that a whopping 133.5 million viewers were watching the show as Lamar was wooing the audience through his selection of songs. 

Roc Nation, along with Apple Music, put up a post on Instagram revealing the number of viewers who watched the show. 

Not only did they claim 133.5 million viewers tuned in to watch Lamar's halftime show ,but the number is also 3% higher than last year’s number. The post also mentioned that it was the "Most watched Halftime show ever."

“We’ve broken the record again! The most watched Apple Music Halftime show EVER, with 133.5 Million viewers,” wrote the company in the caption.  

Soon, fans started calling the company out and accused them of lying when they claimed it was the "most watched Halftime show." As the comments section of the post started filling in with the accusations, Roc Nation turned off the comment as well. 

Nevertheless, fans took to X to claim the company lied and that last year (2024), Usher clocked the highest halftime show viewership with more than 200 million viewers. 

One fan wrote, “Usher & The View reported Usher had the number one most watched Super Bowl Halftime show with 202Million viewers…,” before calling out the group, “Why does Roc Nation lie like this it’s really unnecessary lmfaooo😂😩.”

Another stated, “Uh oh somebody caught red handed gaslighting 👀.”

“Like, d**n. We get it. Kendrick’s performance was trash, Roc Nation rigged the number of views, Kendrick is an industry plant brought to tear down Drake, Kendrick is not that big of an artist, etc,” noted another angry fan.

Fact Check: Roc Nation claimed highest 'halftime show' viewers as opposed to 'Super Bowl' viewers

Despite the fans’ mounting accusations of Roc Nation “lying,” there is no evidence that the entertainment group has made up the numbers. 

Even Billboard claimed in a recent article that Lamar’s show was watched by 133.5 million viewers. The outlet further noted that Usher’s halftime show in 2024 was indeed the most-watched show till Lamar broke the record in 2025.

Last year, the 46-year-old ‘Hey Daddy’ singer clocked in total viewers of 123.4 million fans in the halftime show.

Amid the debacle, the numbers are even more important as the difference in metrics initiated the initial confusion among fans. The confusion grew as Roc Nation’s last year’s post regarding the number of viewers started making a round of social media, which was the main fountainhead of the controversy. 

Contrary to the popular complaint, however, in last year’s post, Roc Nation specifically noted that there were 202.4 million Super Bowl viewers. 

While they did not specifically mention the number of halftime show viewers, they wrote in their caption, “The most watched #AppleMusicHalftime show... EVER! Congrats, @Usher.”

The post also clearly mentioned, “Highest Super Bowl audience in history, with 202.4 Million viewers!”

While the confusion arose because of the use of different metrics, Roc Nation cannot be accused of lying as they noted the metric they were using while making the claims.

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