Not the highest ever, but Super Bowl ratings were solid for Broncos-Panthers

NEW YORK (AP) – Sunday’s Super Bowl drew an average of 111.9 million viewers for Denver’s victory over Carolina. That was lower than the past two years.

The rating makes Sunday’s game the third most-watched event in U.S. television history, according to the Nielsen company. Last year’s down-to-the-wire contest between New England and Seattle keeps the record with 114.4 million viewers.

Twitter said that there were 16.9 million tweets about the game, sharply down from last year’s 25.1 million. Facebook reported that there were 200 million posts, comments or “likes,” down from 265 million last year.

Meanwhile in Nevada, Super Bowl fans bet a record $132.5 million at Nevada sportsbooks on the 50th version of the game. The Nevada Gaming Control Board says its preliminary estimate that Nevada’s 194 sports books kept about 10.1 percent of the wagers, for a total win of $13.3 million.

And in case you were wondering: No, Anheuser-Busch didn’t pay Peyton Manning to say he’d be drinking a lot of Budweiser after winning the Super Bowl. The company’s verified Twitter account said, “We didn’t know the shout-out was coming either, but we’re glad it did.”