As part of its continued bid to win back ad partners, at least half of whom have reportedly cut their spending in the app due to concerns around brand safety, X today outlined its Super Bowl LVIII engagement stats, which it claims broke various usage records in the app.

As per X:

Super Bowl LVIII was one of the biggest ever on X – completely smashing key metrics from last year, with impressions, user posts and video views rising 31%, 41% and 75% respectively YoY1. With an epic overtime game delivering a huge surge in visibility and engagement, brands on X also rose to the occasion. We saw 77% of brands that advertised on-air during the game also share their campaigns on X.
Okay, so with that said, I would approach the video views stat more than a little skeptically, at least as to X's spotty past on both measuring and reporting view counts. With that noted, that's a 75% jump, which certainly is an impressive increase, although the others are probably in line with general Super Bowl-related trends, given how much added juice the Taylor Swift story has provided.

The numbers also hint that although there are bigger issues to be addressed across other parts of the community, sports discourse is still healthy, and imbedded sports communities are largely aligned to the site for their live updates and interaction.

That comes across in this data: X is the clear go-to platform of choice for real-time chatter. And though other apps, like Meta's Threads, are looking to break in, it'll be an uphill climb to alter user behavior -- especially since most sports talk remains a tweet affair. Or post, for that matter.

In terms of top mentions, Taylor Swift's relationship with Travis Kelce obviously helped hype the event.
X also provided a listing of the most-discussed elements of the game, based on usage data.
Other winners were Duolingo, for the most likes on a brand post; Mountain Dew, for the most video views; and Draft Kings, for the brand without a national TV spot that created the most buzz in the app.

Good to see X sharing more insight like this once again under Elon Musk, who the platform seems rather reluctant, up till now, to make much of a push in winning over ad partners to showcase the app's potential.
That might be because Musk himself does not like ads, or that X had been looking forward to further diversifying its revenue streams through user subscriptions in a bid to reduce its reliance on ad partners. In any case, this gives a little more perspective on the value of X for promotions.

That means a lot of brands will still not return to the platform because of Musk's own posts and comments, but for those looking to reach the app's audience-especially around live events-that is very valuable information.

Can X win back ad partners and get its ad business back on track?

Really, much still comes down to Musk himself, who is the most followed user in the app and arguably the most influential. What he shares with his X audience matters a lot, and as he continues pushing his free speech agenda, that will remain a key challenge for X to overcome in winning over big advertisers at the least.