The Top Rated Super Bowl Commercial Each Year From 1989 to 2024

Since 1989, USA Today has asked viewers to sit through the beer ads and candy commercials to pick the best of the best. As you prepare to judge 2025’s commercial offerings, let's take a look back at the top-rated commercials of previous years.

1989 // American Express
1990 // Nike
1991 // Diet Pepsi
1992 // Nike
1993 // McDonald’s
1994 // Pepsi
1995 // Pepsi
1996 // Pepsi
1997 // Pepsi
1998 // Pepsi
1999 // Budweiser
2000 // Budweiser
2001 // Bud Light
2002 // Bud Light
2003 // Budweiser
2004 // Bud Light
2005 // Bud Light
2006 // Bud Light
2007 // Budweiser
2008 // Budweiser
2009 // Doritos
2010 // Snickers
2011 (tie) // Bud Light and Doritos
2012 // Doritos
2013 // Budweiser
2014 // Budweiser
2015 // Budweiser
2016 // Hyundai
2017 // Kia
2018 // Amazon
2019 // NFL
2020 // Jeep
2021 // Rocket Mortgage
2022 // Rocket Mortgage
2023 // The Farmer’s Dog
2024 // State Farm

1989 // American Express

Rating: 7.52

In a fairly straightforward commercial, actors Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey, who were both on Saturday Night Live at the time, use their credit cards to get to the big game in Miami. Lovitz has trouble with his Visa, while Carvey is in paradise with his American Express.

1990 // Nike

Rating: 8.17

Announcers, including the likes of Harry Caray, call an event that keeps changing sports with shots of Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, and Bo Jackson. The phrase nice shoes keeps being used. There’s even a Richard Nixon joke.

1991 // Diet Pepsi

Rating: 8.52

According to USA Today, because America was fighting the Gulf War at the time, many advertisers switched their funny commercials to more serious ones—and those spots didn’t even make their top 10. Diet Pepsi and Ray Charles asked the world if their jingle had caught on yet, receiving a unanimous “sure, dude.”

1992 // Nike

Rating: 8.51

“Who’d you expect, Elmer Fudd?” asks Michael Jordan in Nike’s winning ad, which also featured Bugs Bunny. This commercial laid the groundwork for Space Jam. “Watching this commercial is like seeing an early draft of the Mona Lisa,” USA Today noted. “If the Mona Lisa was a cartoon rabbit slam dunking a basketball.”

1993 // McDonald’s

Rating: 9.0

Maybe Michael Jordan is what it takes to hit No. 1; by 1993, he had been featured in three winning commercials. Jordan and Larry Bird duel against each other in an outrageous game of horse played throughout Chicago. All in the name of the almighty Big Mac.

1994 // Pepsi

Rating: 9.34

A lab chimp drinks a bottle of Pepsi, drives to the beach, and turns into a party animal. Enough said. This begins Pepsi’s domination over other Super Bowl commercials for the next four years.

1995 // Pepsi

Rating: 9.66

Using his straw to get the last drop of Pepsi in his bottle, a young boy on a beach accidentally sucks so hard that he pulls himself into the bottle. His little sister yells, “Mom, he’s done it again!” “The audience was wowed by the joke and the special effects,” USA Today noted, “and were apparently willing to look past the physical impossibilities of such an act.”

1996 // Pepsi

Rating: 9.42

A Coke driver is delivering a new batch to a store when he decides to grab a Pepsi. The whole shelf of cans tumbles to the floor while the Hank Williams song “Your Cheatin’ Heart” plays in the background.

1997 // Pepsi

Rating: 8.22

These bears had a primal urge to dance to the tune of the YMCA song, just using the letters that spell out Pepsi. There’s also a Macarena joke.

1998 // Pepsi

Rating: 9.08

This was the fifth year in a row that Pepsi—which proved to be a powerhouse during the mid-’90s—took the top spot. In this minute-long ad, a skysurfer goes head to head with a goose. The two eventually share a Pepsi and a flock of geese fly away, creating the company’s logo in the sky.

1999 // Budweiser

Rating: 8.01

Enter Budweiser and Anheuser-Busch, which dominated the Super Bowl Ad Meter this year (and for years to come), nabbing seven of the top 10 spots. Two Dalmatian puppies are separated at birth, one becoming a part of a firehouse and the other the mascot of the Clydesdale-driven beer wagon.

2000 // Budweiser

Rating: 8.09

Rex isn’t cooperating on set. As his handler is yelling at him, we see the dog’s dream: While chasing a Budweiser truck, he slams into the side of a mini-van. The dog howls, the director catches it on film, and the movie becomes a success.

2001 // Bud Light

Rating: 8.63

In this 2001 spot, Anheuser-Busch replaced their love for animals with Cedric the Entertainer. While trying to entertain his date, the romance takes a turn for the worse when his bottle of Bud Light accidentally explodes on the girl. They also featured NSYNC in an ad spot that year, this one all about talking to kids about responsible drinking.

2002 // Bud Light

Rating: 9.11

Satin sheets—good. Bud Light—great. The two together? Not so much. A woman begins enticing her beau to join her on their satin sheets with Bud Light, but it doesn’t go as planned. He slides across the sheets and flies out the bedroom window.

2003 // Budweiser

Rating: 8.99

Another Budweiser spot using their famous Clydesdale horses. This time, Budweiser is parodying the use of instant replay by having football-playing horses and a referee zebra. When one of the two humans watching the game calls the ref a “jackass,” the other responds, “I believe that’s a zebra."

2004 // Bud Light

Rating: 9.04

They brought back the animals … in kind of a weird way. Two dog trainers are using their pets to try to outdo each other. Then one dog bites the other trainer in the groin.

2005 // Bud Light

Rating: 8.65

A first-time skydiver is too scared to jump out of the plane—and when his instructor tosses a six-pack of Bud Light out of the hatch, it's the plane’s pilot who takes the plunge.

2006 // Bud Light

Rating: 8.39

In what is a “genius” idea, a man installs a turntable so he can hide his refrigerator in an attempt to keep his friends away from his Bud Light. The turntable, though, sends his box to the apartment next door where a group of men are praising the “magic fridge.”

2007 // Budweiser

Rating: 8.56

On a beach, a bunch of crabs hijack a cooler filled with Bud Light. When two bottles in the cooler make it appear like a large crab surrounded by a halo of sun, the gang begins to idolize it.

2008 // Budweiser

Rating: 8.73

In a tribute to Rocky, a horse is turned down to join the iconic horse-drawn Budwesier Clydesdale wagon, but gets inspiration from an unlikely mentor: a dalmatian. The horse trains through the toughest of conditions to join the hitch team.

2009 // Doritos

Rating: 8.46

Doritos ended the reign of the Anheuser-Busch dynasty in 2009 with their first-ever fan-generated commercial. Two men use a snow globe—what one character calls his “crystal ball”—to make wishes for the future. One man says that there will be free Doritos at work, so he throws the snow globe into a vending machine, breaking the glass to get at the Doritos. The other man wishes for a promotion, but accidentally hits his boss when he throws the globe.

2010 // Snickers

Rating: 8.68

“You’re playing like Betty White out there!” Put an iconic character actor in a commercial, let her get tackled during a football game, and apparently it’s solid gold that other Super Bowl commercials dream of. “I never have gone away!” White said afterward. “But ever since that commercial came out, it opened all these doors.”

2011 (tie) // Bud Light and Doritos

Rating: 8.35

This was the first year the system returned a tie. In Bud Light’s ad, a man is asked to housesit a group of intelligent dogs in a home with a refrigerator full of Bud Light. The man puts the dogs to work, catering a party and serving the product to guests.

In another user-generated win for Doritos, a man teases his girlfriend’s pug with a bag of Doritos. The guy closes and stands behind a glass door, but the pug runs and pounces on the door, knocking it down and taking the bag of chips.

2012 // Doritos

Rating: 8.82

When a man witnesses his dog bury his wife’s cat, the dog bribes the man with bags of Doritos to keep mum. The dog’s plan worked, the commercial worked, and it only cost the video’s creator $20 to put together.

2013 // Budweiser

Rating: 7.76

The big score (and waterworks) of the 2013 Super Bowl came when Budweiser told an emotional story of a trainer and the horse he breeds and raises to be a Budweiser Clydesdale. After seeing the baby horse and trainer interact, the commercial jumps three years, where we see the two re-unite at a big-city parade. The “Brotherhood” spot, which received an averaged score of 7.76, is paying homage to Budweiser’s long relationship with Super Bowl ads and with their horses. “It will be one that makes people smile, maybe put a little bit of a tear in their eye, it’s a very emotionally evocative spot. It’s a great piece and a nod to the tradition of the Clydesdales,” said Paul Chibe, vice president of U.S. marketing for Anheuser-Busch.

2014 // Budweiser

Rating: 8.29

The next year, Budweiser went for a similarly sentimental story, this time featuring a dog and a Clydesdale who are best friends.

2015 // Budweiser

Rating: 8.10

In 2015’s top-rated ad spot—again coming from Budweiser—hitches a ride off the farm and experiences some tough times, from being forced to take shelter from rain in a box to encountering a wolf just when he’s about to make it back home. Thankfully, the Clydesdales come to the rescue.

2016 // Hyundai

Rating: 6.90

Kevin Hart plays a dad who gives his daughter’s date the keys to his Hyundai, then keeps popping up on their night out thanks to the CarFinder feature.

2017 // Kia

Rating: 7.47

Comedian Melissa McCarthy tries to help whales, trees, ice caps, and more with ... not so great results in this Kia spot from 2017.

2018 // Amazon

Rating: 7.18

When Alexa loses her voice, Amazon pulls in everyone from Gordon Ramsey and Cardi B to Rebel Wilson and Anthony Hopkins.

2019 // NFL

Rating: 7.69

This ad celebrated 100 years of the National Football League by gathering some of the most talented players in one room. All is well until someone fumbles the ball.

2020 // Jeep

Rating: 7.01

This ad spot parodied Bill Murray’s 1993 movie Groundhog Day, with the actor taking Punxsutawney Phil on adventures with him in his Jeep.

2021 // Rocket Mortgage

Rating: 7.38

Tracy Morgan shows potential homeowners why certain is better than pretty sure in this Rocket Mortgage ad, which has the actor and the future homeowners facing off against poisonous mushrooms, bears, and Dave Bautista.

2022 // Rocket Mortgage

Rating: 6.82

Rocket Mortgage had the top-rated ad spot for the second year running, this time featuring Anna Kendrick and Barbie, who really wants her dream house.

2023 // The Farmer’s Dog

Rating: 6.56

This heart-warming ad from dog food company The Farmer‘s Dog features a girl and her pup through the years.

2024 // State Farm

Rating: 6.68

Arnold Schwarzenegger can’t quite get the slogan right in this 2024 State Farm commercial—neighbor keeps coming out “neighba.”

Discover More Stories About the Super Bowl:

A version of this story ran in 2014; it has been updated for 2025.