You Can Legally Stream Super Bowl LVI for Free

Super Bowl LVI kicks off on Feb. 13 at 6:30 p.m. ET (3:30 p.m. PT). That leaves you two days to figure out how to stream the game online if you don’t have live TV or don’t feel comfortable watching at your favorite local drinking spot due to the still-cresting omicron wave.

Luckily, NBC is hosting a live stream of the game online that you can watch on a variety of devices—but you’ll have to pay to access it. You’ll need to sign up for NBC’s Peacock Premium streaming service, but it’s just $5 month, or $10 if you don’t want additional ads (there is a free version of Peacock, but it does not include live sports). You can cancel your subscription after the Super Bowl is over, though, and paying $5 for an app is quicker and easier than cobbling together an antenna setup or begging your friends and family for their cable passwords to watch the game last-minute.

Best of all, the official Peacock stream will match what airs on TV, including every moment of the Bengals versus Rams matchup, the entire half-time show, and every Super Bowl commercial. While streaming quality depends on the strength of your internet connection, and the game probably won’t look as good as the HDTV broadcast, chances are Peacock’s offering will be more reliable than illegal streams—and more importantly, free of malware-ridden ads. (To ensure you’re getting the best-possible watch experience, connect your devices to your internet router via an ethernet cable, instead of wifi.)

The only other reason folks may look for a bootleg stream is if their region is blocked by their ISP. If that happens, install a reliable VPN and connect to a proxy server to mask your IP address and get around the region locks.

How to stream Super Bowl LVI

There are a few ways to watch the 2022 Super Bowl this year, and the best option will depend on which devices you have access to.

Web browser

Your web browser is the most direct way to watch. Just go to Peacocktv.com, sign in with your account (or create a new one) on the day of the game, and press play on the video stream once it’s live. This stream should work on all major web browsers available for Windows, Mac, Linux, ChromeOS, and even mobile devices.

If you want to watch on your TV this way, simply connect your computer to your TV via an HDMI cable and switch over to the correct video source on your TV—but make sure you create your account and test your setup ahead of time to ensure you have the proper cables on game day.

Peacock app

The other option is to install the Peacock app on your device(s) and watch there. The app is available for:

• Android and Android TV
• Apple TV
• Fire TV and Fire tablets
• iOS and iPadOS devices
• Roku
• Select smart TV models
• PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 consoles
• Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S consoles

Install the app via your device’s app store and sign in (or create a new premium account if you need to). The stream won’t be available until the day of the game, but it’s a good idea to install and load the app to make sure it works properly, and confirm your devices are properly connected via HDMI or screencasting if you plan to watch on an external TV or monitor.

This post originally published on Feb. 10, 2022 and was updated on Feb. 11 with corrected information that NBC and its Peacock app is this year’s Super Bowl broadcaster, not CBS.