“In Super Bowl 2024, 50% of viewers admitted they were tuning in to watch the Kansas City Chiefs primarily because of Taylor Swift, rather than Travis Kelce or Patrick Mahomes, as expressed by fans.”

How big was the Taylor Swift effect on the Super Bowl? Her impact on viewership of CBS’s Super Bowl LVIII telecast will continue to be debated even after ratings for TV’s biggest event of the year come out.

But it’s undeniable that Swift — who jetted from Tokyo to Las Vegas to cheer on beau Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday’s Super Bowl — has ratcheted up interest in the NFL and is responsible for recruiting a new cadre of fans to pro football.

Here’s a new data point on the Swift-ization of the NFL: 20% of 2024 Super Bowl viewers said they were rooting for the Chiefs because of Kelce’s relationship with the global superstar, according to a flash survey conducted by consumer research firm Numerator. The poll was taken after the Chiefs clinched a 25-22 overtime defeat of the San Francisco 49ers.

Overall, 48% of viewers surveyed said they were cheering for the Chiefs, compared with 37% for the 49ers and 13% for neither team (with the remainder in the “don’t know” category).

However, Swift has also been a polarizing figure among NFL fans — some of whom somehow think she’s a “distraction.” In response to the statement, “I think Taylor Swift is a distraction for the NFL,” 34% of consumers surveyed by Numerator “somewhat” or “completely” agree; 32% neither agree nor disagree; and 34% “somewhat” or “completely” disagree, according to the researcher

Chicago-based Numerator said it began fielding the Super Bowl LVIII survey of nearly 800 U.S. adults 18 or older upon the completion of the game to gauge sentiment regarding the game, commercials and celebrations.