Oh, the Super Bowl. The excitement, the passion, the trash-talking. No one says America like gathering around with your friends and family to watch the two best football teams in the world going toe-to-toe for the ultimate prize: The Vince Lombardi trophy.

Year after year, millions of people get together, make – or buy – their favorite dishes, place their bets and get a couple of drinks to watch the NFL’s ultimate matchup. Even those who aren’t exactly sports fans.

So, even though almost everyone in the country roots for a team, that doesn’t exactly means that they actually know what’s going on or are actual football fans. In those cases, some may wonder how long is exactly the Super Bowl.Others just watch it to spend time with their couple or for the ads and halftime shows. For those, the game can be boring and are just looking forward to that clock reaching double-zeros. If you’re one of those people, then keep scrolling.

How Long Is The Super Bowl?

As we’ve already mentioned, a football game consists of four quarters of 15 minutes each with a 12-minute half-time after the first two quarters. However, that doesn’t mean that the game will be over after those 72 minutes have gone by.

For starters, overtime could add up to 10 minutes of playing time before the game ends on a tie. Add the stoppage time, injuries, timeouts, and TV advertising, and the game can be up to three hours on average.

And, as you may imagine by now, the Super Bowl lasts even longer. That’s because the halftime show is usually a couple of minutes longer than in usual games, plus all the brand new ads on the air.

Also, referees tend to spend more time digging into replays, as they don’t want to get any call wrong on the most important game of the season On average, a Super Bowl game can go from 3.5 to 4 hours. So, if you’re not exactly a football fan, buy a couple more beers and a spare bucket of chicken wings, for it’s going to be a long night for you!