The National Football League championship, broadcast on CBS, beat the record held by the 1983 finale of the "M*A*S*H" comedy series, which had 106 million viewers, CBS and Nielsen Media said.

The previous record for a Super Bowl was the 98.7 million Americans who tuned in to see the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals in 2009.

TV audiences for the Super Bowl have grown for each of the past four years, demonstrating why advertisers paid up to $3 million for a 30-second commercial during Sunday's more than three-hour broadcast.