All deflated balls jokes and Marshawn Lynch quotes aside, last night was a heck of a football game.

Superbowl XLIX (49) – the last to feature roman numerals, came down to the final play of the game. Not exactly the way either team had planned, but intense nonetheless, and that was just half of the excitement people pray for on this night

The other half of the yearly spectacle takes place on the same screen, but off the field. As advertisers, the Superbowl is the largest single television audience of each year, broadcast in over 125 countries around the world and in 25 different languages. That’s why nobody flinches at the reported $4-$4.5 million dollar media buy if you want your 30 second spot to air during the game. It’s all about that reach – a 100,000,000 + person reach to be more precise.

More impressively, this Super Bowl quickly became the most Tweeted SB of all time, racking up an impressive 28.4 million tweets about the game, teams, or ads.

Even more impressive is that this year’s Super Bowl was also the first in history to be fully live streamed via the internet. Legally that is.

No matter how you followed the game though, last night was (for the ad community at least) all about the ads. Even though common practice is to release the ads early, most still watch to see which cute dog or celebrity cameo will capture their attention this year.

We won’t pick a favourite, because there were quite a few laughs, and a couple tears. But one ad facing tremendous amount of scrutiny is Nationwide’s “Childhood Death” ad. Not exactly the vibe people were going for, and what’s being called “The Darkest Ad in Super Bowl History.” Here, see for yourself.

As for the rest of the ads, we found the full list at AdAge for you to see every ad A to Z.

What was your favourite?