How the Big Game plays out on Spotify
How self-serve advertisers and local businesses can get in the game
Sports and digital audio go together like Sunday football and hot wings. After all, what’s the Big Game without a pre-party playlist or your favorite sports podcast’s post-game recap? On Spotify, we understand all the ways sports fans come together to soundtrack the moment—from kick-off to the final touchdown and beyond.
Here’s what advertisers need to know about how sports fans are streaming on Spotify.
The soundtrack to the season
Spotify listeners stream sports-related playlists for 47M minutes monthly.1
Sports fans=Spotify fans
More than 2 in 3 (70%) Spotify listeners are extremely, very or quite interested in sports.2
Fans stream as a team
US Football Fans on Spotify are 28% more likely to stream Spotify via connected speakers.3
Spotify listeners are 32% more likely to watch sports games and sports coverage with their siblings and 41% more likely to with their parents.4
[Video] Game on
Football fans are 10% more likely to stream the gaming moment.5
Among Spotify listeners, there is a 69% overlap between gamers and sports fanatics. This gamer/sports fan group skews male (63%) and younger (40% A16-24).6
The long weekend
The Friday pregame
During the 21-22 professional American football season, Friday was the peak day for streaming football-related playlists as fans got fired up for weekend watching.7
The big day
Listeners soundtrack game-day rituals like cooking and getting together with friends. The “cooking” and “party” moments peak in the late afternoon hours on Sundays.8
The Tuesday postgame
Fans replay the weekend’s wins with recaps from top sports personalities. Streams spike on Tuesdays for The Ringer Fantasy Football Show (24%) and The Ringer NFL Show (24%).9
Big Game inspiration for self-serve advertisers
1. Dial up the pre-game hype with podcast ads
Connect with football fans as they huddle up with their favorite podcasts. Spotify’s podcast advertising network allows advertisers to reach listeners based on their demographics, behaviors, and real-time contexts — both on and off Spotify. Learn how moving company Two Men and a Truck drove awareness among local listeners with an audience-based podcast ad campaign built with Ad Studio.
2. Serve up game-day essentials with audio
For QSR and CPG snack brands, the Big Game is the most wonderful time of the year to reach hungry fans. Rise above the noise with audio ads that hook listeners’ attention as they gear up for game day. Need some inspo? Check out how Pizza Hut used immersive audio ads that replicated the roar of a game-day football crowd and delivered the messaging — focused on value and delivery options — via voiceover in the style of a pro sportscaster.
🎧 Grab headphones for the full effect.
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3. Embrace nostalgic sounds
Sports fans on Spotify are 16% more likely to listen to Throwbacks compared to all Spotify listeners. (+30% ‘80s,’ +30% ‘Oldies,’ and +29% ‘90s’).10 Flex your creative muscles (and maybe bust out the synths) to incorporate throwback sounds into your audio campaign. Read our quick-start guide to creating digital audio ads to help you get started.
4. Score stronger results with multiple formats
Consider putting two star players in your next Spotify campaign: audio and video ads. Where audio ads can reach listeners in screenless moments (like while they’re working out, cooking dinner, or driving), video ads are served when the Spotify app is in focus. Together, they can extend the impact of your ads and reach listeners in the right moments. Learn more about how to pick the right ad format based on your campaign goals and creative capabilities.
5. Make contextual targeting part of the game plan
A disruptive ad is the ultimate party foul. Spotify uses contextual audience targeting to pick up on listeners’ real-time context, ensuring the right ad appears at the right moment. Context can supercharge those strategies by informing your ad creative — so you can create more tailored messages that are relevant to the individual.
Want more Big Game inspiration from Spotify? Tune into these sports podcasts and Spotify Greenroom live rooms to get hyped for the big weekend.
- Source: Spotify First-Party Data, monthly average from Jan 2022 - Jan 2023, Spotify Free users, US. Playlist keywords included: sports, baseball, basketball, football, soccer, tennis, hockey, rugby, volleyball, gameday (English and translated terms for top 5 US streamed languages). Global.
- Source: GWI Sports, Spotify Free Users, Q2 2022, USA
- Source: Spotify First-Party Data, December 2022, 3PFootball FansUS
- Source: GWI Sports, Spotify Free Users, Q2 2022, USA
- Source: Spotify First-Party Data, December 2022, 3PFootball FansUS
- Source: GlobalWebIndex. Spotify Free Users. Gamers=those who game on any device. Sports Fanatics=interests in watching or playing sports or in adventure/extreme sports. 2Q19-1Q20. Global.
- Source: Spotify Internal, September 1, 2022 to December 18, 2022, USA
- Source: Spotify First-Party Data, US Football: 9/1/2022 - 12/18/2022, USA, Sundays by hour.
- Source: Spotify First-Party Data, US Football: December 2022, Spotify Free users, USA.
- Source: Spotify First-Party Data, 3PFootball FansUS, December 2022, USA.
This is an updated version of a story that was originally published in February 2022—we aim to keep our content as fresh as possible, to help advertisers make the most informed decisions about how they spend their ad budget.