Super Bowl LI was one of the most dramatic in recent memory, with an unlikely comeback for the New England Patriots to break the hearts of the Atlanta Falcons. Though a large global audience tunes in for the showcase every year, it's the enormous US audience that's the target for ambitious advertisers, of course - the many, many ads are a part of the event on the country's networks. In a slightly surprising move Nintendo joined in this year, spending an estimated $5 million - a ball-park figure for 30 seconds of Super Bowl ad space - to show off The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Nintendo Switch.

As a reminder, this is the 30 second ad that aired.

Ace Metrix, a company that 'measures the impact of video advertising', has shared some of its audience impressions data from the Super Bowl ads. Its method is to poll a group of 500 new viewers for each ad, 'demographically balanced', with each individual's scores "on creative attributes such as Attention, Likeability, Information, Change, Relevance, Desire and Watchability". Nintendo's ad, ultimately, performed well in this analysis.

In fact, Nintendo's ad secured 4th spot in the Ace Metrix analysis of ads that were 'new content' for the Super Bowl, which is quite impressive up against so much competition.

  1. Ford - Go Further* (appeared before and after the game)
  2. Audi - Daughter
  3. King's Hawaiian - False Cabinet
  4. Nintendo - Switch & Play
  5. Kia - Hero's Journey
  6. Skittles - Romance
  7. LIFEWTR - Inspiration
  8. Febreze - Halftime Bathroom Break is Coming
  9. Wonderful Pistachios - Ernie Gets Physical
  10. Honda - Yearbooks

Nintendo's trailer was among those to play well with audiences as it "was able to demonstrate an innovative new product with an entertaining ad"; it was also listed as one of the 'surprises' of the Super Bowl, in addition to its number four spot in the overall rankings.

Notably, at the time of writing the official upload of the 'extended cut' trailer, which shows various types of gamers and other Switch titles, has also clocked up nearly 3.5 million views on YouTube, with around 44,500 'likes' opposed to roughly 2000 'dislikes'.

Overall it seems that Nintendo's Super Bowl commercials (the shorter on-air version and the extended cut) have been well received. Nintendo of America will no doubt be watching data to see whether the pricey advertising spot proves to be a good investment.

Update:

TiVo has issued its own brief set of data, determined by "commercial retention compared to overall program viewership". It's simply a top 10, and the Switch advert (along with quite a few in the list above) aren't high enough to feature in those rankings".