Kendrick Lamar’s 2025 Super Bowl halftime show remains the most-watched in history.

On Tuesday (Feb. 10), NBC announced the official viewership tallies for Bad Bunny’s 2026 Super Bowl halftime show. Despite previous reports that his Big Game set had surpassed K-Dot’s numbers the previous year, the Puerto Rican pop star pulled in 128.2 million viewers. That falls short of Kendrick Lamar’s record-breaking number of 133.5 million.

K-Dot’s 2025 Super Bowl halftime show performance featured R&B singer SZA, with whom Kendrick would go on a record-breaking world tour last year. He performed several tracks from his GNX album, including the controversial Drake diss song “Not Like Us,” which won five Grammy Awards the week prior, including Best Rap Song, Best Rap Performance, Best Music Video Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

Unlike Kendrick Lamar’s performance last year, Bad Bunny’s set had some competition. To spite the NFL’s choice of Bad Bunny, the right-wing non-profit Turning Point U.S.A. put on an alternative halftime show that ran concurrently with the NFL’s. TP’s show starring Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice and Gabby Barrett. It reportedly drew in a viewership of 5.1 million.

Bad Bunny, whose set included guest appearances from Lady Gaga, Ricky Martin and a cameo from Cardi B, could see a bump in numbers. NBC notes that “full global viewership for the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show will be available early next week.”

For now, K-Dot remains king of the hill.

See 50 Surprising Facts About Kendrick Lamar

K-Dot fans, this one’s for you.

Top Dawg Entertainment / Interscope Records / Aftermath Entertainment

Kendrick Lamar’s father was a member of the Gangster Disciples gang. K-Dot’s mother told his father that he had to leave the street life, so he did and they moved to Compton, where Kendrick’s Aunt Tina got them a hotel. His father appears on the rapper’s good kid, m.A.A.d city album cover art in a photo on the wall as Kendrick sits in front of it with his uncles.

Charlie Gillett Collection / Redferns

Kendrick Lamar was named after The Temptations singer Eddie Kendricks.

Ron Galella, Getty Images

K-Dot was once in the presence of the late, great Tupac Shakur. Back in November of 1995, when he was just 8 years old, Kendrick sat on his father’s shoulders as he watched ’Pac and Dr. Dre film the video for ’Pac’s comeback single, “California Love.”

Dat Piff

Back in 2004, Kendrick Lamar delivered his first-ever mixtape, Youngest Head Nigga in Charge (Hub City Threat: Minor of the Year).

Kevin Mazur, Getty Images

Years before he signed a deal with Interscope and Aftermath Entertainment for his first major label deal, Kendrick Lamar signed to Def Jam in 2006. Jay-Z was still running the label at the time. K-Dot said the deal didn’t work out and he wasn’t ready at the time, but he appreciated the opportunity. Throughout this time, he was already signed to Top Dawg Entertainment.

Santiago Bluguermann, Getty Images

He changed his rap name from K-Dot to Kendrick Lamar because he felt like his initial moniker diverted attention from his actual identity.

Dat Piff

Young Thug wasn’t the first rapper to have a mixtape title inspired by Lil Wayne. In January of 2009, months after Lil Wayne dropped Tha Carter III, Kendrick dropped his C4 mixtape, which was inspired by Weezy’s LP.

@NoLifeShaq / @Eminem via Twitter

In a June 13, 2020 tweet, Eminem included Kendrick on his list of greatest rappers ever. He posted the list on Twitter.

Top Dawg Entertainment / Interscope Records /Aftermath Entertainment

While most fans and critics call 2015’s To Pimp a Butterfly his best album, Kendrick believes Damn. is his best LP.

MattGush, Getty Images

Although Kendrick wasn’t in a gang growing up, he knew a bunch of Piru Bloods and by the time he was in high school, he found himself in a bad crowd. One time, his parents kicked him out of their house for two days because police told them that Kendrick had been involved in an incident in the neighborhood.

APLUSFILMZ via YouTube

Kendrick Lamar once said that Tupac Shakur visited him in a dream and told him to keep his music alive. Lesane Parish Crooks is Tupac’s birth name.

Jeff Kravitz, FilmMagic

In April of 2018, Kendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize for his Damn. album. In doing so, he became the first person to win the award for an album that was neither jazz nor a classical music album.

Johnny Nunez, Getty Images

Although he hadn’t dropped an album on a major label in 2011, folks already had an idea that K-Dot would become a rap legend. It was during an August of 2011 concert that Snoop Dogg and The Game, two West Coast rap icons, joined him onstage and they declared that Kendrick was the new King of West Coast rap.

Kevin Winter, Getty Images

When he was still a rap game up-and-comer, Kendrick Lamar was rapping so well that Eminem wasn’t sure the content was all him. In a 2017 interview, Ed Sheeran said that Em had Kendrick write lyrics and record a verse in the studio without his friends so Em could verify that Kendrick didn’t use a ghostwriter.

Mike Coppola, Getty Images

If hip-hop’s most respected producer reached out to you then you might just think you’re being trolled. That was the case for Kendrick when Dr. Dre reached out to him to work together in 2012. In a 2017 interview, K-Dot admitted that he didn’t believe his audio engineer when the engineer told him Dr. Dre wanted to work with the rising rap superstar. In May of 2012, it was reported that Kendrick signed with Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment.

Bryan Bedder, Getty Images

Kendrick Lamar once helped work on material for Dr. Dre’s unreleased Detox album.

Noel Vasquez, GC Images/Getty Images

His father, Kenny, was almost robbed by Top Dawg Entertainment founder Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith back in the day. On “Duckworth,” the last track on Kendrick’s Damn. album, Kendrick tells the story of his father befriending Top Dawg as Top Dawg had plotted to rob the KFC that Kendrick’s dad happened to work at. On the song, Kendrick notes that had Top Dawg robbed the restaurant, he might have killed K-Dot’s dad and gone to prison, leaving Kendrick without a father and a record deal with TDE.

Getty Images for Little Kids Roc

In 2011, Kendrick delivered an incredibly on point Wiz Khalifa imitation song in the studio. While some rappers might have taken offense, Wiz seemingly took it in stride and ended up taking K-Dot on the road for his Under the Influence Tour with Mac Miller in 2012.

Albert Ceolan / De Agostini Picture Library, Getty Images

In a 2012 interview, Kendrick explained that the “m.A.A.d city” part of his major label debut album, good kid, m.A.A.d city had two meanings. The first meaning was the acronym, My Angry Adolescence Divided. The second interpretation is an acronym for My Angel on Angel Dust, which is a reference to a time he smoked a blunt that was laced with angel dust years ago. The instance, one he touches on his GKMC cut “m.A.A.d city” was one that led him to stop smoking and drinking.

Taylor Swift via YouTube

Kendrick Lamar earned his first-ever No. 1 placement on the Billboard Hot 100 chart after he appeared on Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood.” The song landed at No. 1 in June 2015.

Kevin Winter, Getty Images

In his career, Kendrick Lamar has won 13 Grammy Awards, including awards for Best Rap Album (To Pimp a Butterfly, 2016; Damn., 2018), Best Rap Song (“Alright,” 2015; “Humble.,” 2018) and more.

Matthew Stockman, Getty Images

NBA player Nick Young is Kendrick Lamar’s cousin.

Kevin Winter, Getty Images

When you go from the block to the top of the Billboard charts, it’s only natural to think about the folks you left behind. That’s a theme Kendrick has said permeated his To Pimp a Butterfly album. In an April of 2015 interview, he said the album was laced with “survivor’s guilt” that stems from his aspirations to be a voice for those worldwide when he was sometimes unable to help the people he knew.

@kendricklamar via Twitter

While K-Dot hasn’t fully penetrated the world of movie or TV stardom yet, he made his foray into that realm on the 50 Cent executive-produced TV series,Power in 2018. For his one-episode appearance, Kendrick played the role of a drug addict named Laces.

Kevin Winter, Getty Images

Kendrick Lamar went to the same high school as Dr. Dre. Both attended Compton’s Centennial High School.

Mandel Ngan, AFP / Getty Images

Five years ago, Barack Obama said that Kendrick’s To Pimp a Butterfly track “How Much a Dollar Cost” was his favorite song of 2015.

Read More: Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Still the Most Watched | https://www.xxlmag.com/kendrick-lamar-super-bowl-halftime-show-still-most-watched/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral