YouTube says Amazon Alexa, Bud Light & Groupon won the Super Bowl ad game

YouTube says the most popular Super Bowl ads this year — on its AdBlitz Super Bowl hub — belonged to Amazon Alexa, Bud Light and Groupon.

View count numbers for the ads were not given, but a YouTube spokesperson says the videos were ranked based on views and cheers that occurred on Adblitz, YouTube’s site dedicated to Super Bowl ads and football-related content launched on January 30.

“YouTube AdBlitz enables fans to watch, cheer, and share Big Game ads before, during and after the game,” says YouTube, “Brands begin uploading ad teasers and full ad spots in the weeks prior to the game, and we keep them posted the rest of the year so fans can come back to watch and rewatch their favorite ads at any time.”

Now in its 11th year, the 2018 AdBlitz site included more than just the official Super Bowl spots, with football-related content and videos by creators. YouTube says many brands that only ran digital Super Bowl ads (versus official Super Bowl spots that aired during the game) were also included in this year’s roundup of Super Bowl campaigns on AdBlitz.

In addition to naming the top three most-watched Super Bowl spots, YouTube says Super Bowl ads saw a 16 percent lift in views this year, and that one in every eight Super Bowl ads watched on Super Bowl Sunday were watched on living room devices.

“We saw over a 16 percent increase in viewership of ads on YouTube this year, with viewership on Living Room devices increasing by 52 percent,” writes YouTube product marketing manager Meredith Bailey on Google’s YouTube Blog.

Top 3 most-watched Super Bowl ads on YouTube

1. Amazon Alexa: “Alexa Loses Her Voice”

2. Bud Light: “The Bud Knight”

3. Groupon: “Who Wouldn’t?”

According to YouTube, more than 80 brands uploaded content to its AdBlitz site this year, with the Super Bowl-focused site getting more traffic than ever before.

“In just two days, AdBlitz site traffic this year exceeded total AdBlitz traffic during the entire Big Game week last year,” writes Bailey.

While the numbers look strong, they do not convey the overall Super Bowl ad viewing stats YouTube has routinely shared for previous Super Bowl seasons. In past years, YouTube regularly released a top 10 ad leaderboard for Super Bowl ads, including overall view numbers for the official game day spots.

Related reading on our sister site MarTech Today: Going beyond Super Bowl engagement metrics to find what consumers really think