Adobe: AI-driven shopping grows less than expected on Super Bowl Sunday
Consumer usage of artificial intelligence jumped considerably on the day of the Super Bowl but did not quite reach expectations.
In an email to Chain Store Age, Adobe released Adobe Analytics data on a variety of consumer shopping and spending metrics for Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 8, 2026). Notable findings include:
AI growth misses predictions
According to Adobe, AI referral visit share on Super Bowl Sunday 2026 was 425% higher than in 2025. During the week leading up to the Super Bowl, AI referral visit increased by 430% year over year, while AI-driven visit share rose by 162% compared to a typical Sunday.
While these figures represent significant year over year growth, they fall short of predictions Adobe released a few days before the “Big Game.” For Super Bowl Sunday 2026, Adobe projected AI referral visit share to be approximately 444.1% higher than in 2025, reflecting what it said is continued growth in AI-driven discovery.
[READ MORE: Adobe: AI, social media use by Super Bowl viewers is growing]
In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, AI referral visit share was expected to increase by roughly 471.48% year-over-year, indicating heightened research activity ahead of the event. On Super Bowl Sunday, Adobe forecast AI-driven visit share to rise by about 176.63% compared to a typical Sunday.
Social revenue share beats forecast
Unlike AI, social revenue share exceeded Adobe’s expectations, rising 20% year over year on Super Bowl Sunday to 4.8% from 4%, better than the predicted 15.9% year over year growth.
Revenue from social was up 29.1% year over year in the week ahead of Super Bowl Sunday 2026, slightly beating a forecast of 28.91% year over year growth for the week.
Affiliates / partner marketing revenue share hits year-to-date high
Affiliates and partners revenue share was 21.8%, up 15.3% year over year on Super Bowl Sunday 2026, slightly below the 16.9% increase from Super Bowl 2025 Adobe had expected. It was still the highest revenue share seen from affiliates year to date.
Super Bowl weekend leading categories
Adobe tracked significant boosts in specific product categories during the weekend of Feb. 7-8, 2026, including:
- Chicken wings (up 207%).
- Chips and dips (up 101%).
- Ranch and blue cheese dressing (up 87%).
- Soft drinks (up 65%).
- Snacks (up 58%).
- TVs (up 32%).
These increases are consistent with the past three years, where Super Bowl-related spending analyzed by Adobe has seen an uptick in early February, with significant boosts in specific product categories.
Saturday, Feb 7, 2026 ,was the biggest grocery shopping day in the lead-up to the Super Bowl with overall grocery spending up 22% above the average Saturday in January.
Team merchandise sales jump
A Super Bowl win brings the second-biggest surge in spending on merchandise from the two participating teams the day of and the day following the game, with the winning team anticipated to experience an uptick in merch spending between 300% and 500% higher than the first two weeks of January 2026.
Superbowl LX contestants (the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks) saw a combined 850% increase in online merch spending following the NFC and AFC 2026 conference championship games on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026.
Based on Adobe Analytics data, Adobe analyzes direct commerce transactions online, covering over 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, 100 million SKUs, and 18 product categories.
