NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The final ratings for Sunday's Super Bowl telecast showed that more people did watch the game, but were not as strong as the initial readings indicated.
Nielsen Sports Marketing's readings show that 41.4 percent of U.S. homes tuned into the game, compared to a 40.7 rating for last year's game.
Numbers released by CBS Monday morning, based on preliminary readings from the 55 largest media markets in the country, had the percentage at 44.2 for Sunday's game, which was the closest contest since 2000. A drop from the initial overnight reading is common when the final numbers are tallied.
This year's final rating is the best since a 43.3 rating for the 2000 game between St. Louis and Tennessee, a game that, like this year's between New England and Carolina, went down to the end without the outcome being known.
The last half-hour of the game, as the lead changed several times, got a 46.8 rating this year, its highest rating for any half-hour bloc of the game. The initial rating released by CBS showed it was the best rating since 1998.
Nielsen put the average U.S. audience for the game at 89.8 million people, up from 88.6 million a year ago. But that was not a record audience or even in the five biggest of all time.
CBS estimated the total audience, counting all people who tuned in for all or part of the game, at a record 140 million. A total audience estimate was not immediately available from Nielsen.
The two cities that hosted the game were not the top markets in terms of viewership. The game got a 52.2 rating in Boston and a 49.7 rating in Charlotte, N.C. The top market was Kansas City, which saw a 57.2 rating for the game, while the game got its lowest rating in the New York market, where hit was watched in 35.8 percent of homes.
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