The Denver Broncos were crowned Super Bowl 50 champions after a 24-10 upset win over the top-seeded Carolina Panthers.
The Broncos scored early and never trailed as they held the league's highest-scoring offense in check en route to capturing their first Super Bowl title in 17 years.
The win was significant for Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning who won his second Super Bowl, in a career heralded as one of the best in the sport's history.
Emulating his Broncos boss, John Elway, the 39-year-old Manning can ride off with the Lombardi Trophy after leading Denver to their third NFL title, first since 1999 - when Elway was the quarterback.
"I'll take some time to reflect," Manning said when asked if Super Bowl 50 is the end.
"I got a couple priorities first. I'm going to go kiss my wife and my kids. ... I'm going to drink a lot of Budweiser tonight. Take care of those things first."
Beyonce, Bruno Mars heat up Super Bowl halftime show
Coldplay was the headline act at Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show, but it was R&B super stars Beyonce and Bruno Mars who delivered the sizzle for a lively, upbeat performance that paid homage to previous halftime show headliners.
While known mainly for mellow hits, British alt-rockers Coldplay amped up the energy with their upbeat hit "Viva La Vida," surrounded by dancing violinists and standing on a colorfully illuminated stage floor.
The band then performed its hits "Paradise" and "Adventure of a Lifetime" before a black-leather-clad Mars, who headlined the halftime show in 2014, bounced in, singing and dancing through his hit "Uptown Funk!," with producer Mark Ronson on DJ decks on stage.
But all eyes were on Beyonce, who sang and gyrated her way through her latest single "Formation" - a power anthem to race and feminism that debuted Saturday.
Her Bruno Mars-partnered version of "Formation" was considerably lighter in tone than the video and single. The ad immediately following the show announced her "Formation" tour.
Beyonce and Mars joined Coldplay frontman Chris Martin for a quick re-visit to "Uptown Funk!," ending on Coldplay's uplifting ballad "Fix You," with images of past halftime performers including Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Black Eyed Peas.
Even for music's biggest stars, the Super Bowl halftime show is the largest stage of their careers, drawing more than 100 million viewers to the live event.
That commercial
A controversial point from the half-time show was a Doritos advert showing a woman going into early labour.
The commercial, called 'Crash the Super Bowl', was the venture of Australian filmmaker Peter Carstairs' and opens with a father loudly eating Doritos during his partner's ultrasound.
It has been slammed on social media as 'chilling' and 'disturbing'.
The advert and a response Tweet below.
Lady Gaga performs national anthem
The songstress, decked out in a glittery red outfit and makeup, kicked off the Big Game at Levi's Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area with her version of the song, undoubtedly drawing in younger viewers after she was announced earlier this week.
@ladygaga I'm Irish and have many American family..you sung Star spangled banner beautiful...you did America proud! pic.twitter.com/rTjJsiKCHV — Lady_So_Random (@ladysorandom1) February 8, 2016
Pop culture fans have plenty to look forward to ahead in the show. Coldplay and Beyonce will perform for the big Pepsi halftime show, and Bruno Mars, Adele, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and more have been rumored to stop by to surprise the crowd.
Idina Menzel performed last year's big number. Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Billy Joel and Cher appeared at the Super Bowl in the past to sing the National Anthem.
Marlee Martin appeared alongside Lady Gaga to perform the song in American Sign Language.
The pregame and halftime shows are NFL Network productions, executive produced by Ricky Kirshner.
Heavy security and sunshine greet fans
Heavy security and brilliant sunshine greeted football fans as they descended on Levi's Stadium for Super Bowl 50 between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers today.
As if it had been specially ordered by the National Football League for the Golden anniversary, Mother Nature delivered perfect party weather with blue skies and unseasonably warm temperatures hovering around 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 Celsius).
The weather helped lighten the mood as thousands of fans passed through heavy security put in place following recent attacks in San Bernardino, California and Paris.
Earlier in the week, US Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said law enforcement officials had worked with their French counterparts to learn from last year's deadly attacks in the French capital.
Related reading
Gridiron 101: Things to know before Super Bowl 50
Those attacks included the detonation of a suicide vest outside a soccer match.
Heavily armed soldiers backed up by armoured vehicles ringed an imposing security perimeter around the state-of-the-art stadium in Silicon Valley.
"It looks like Operation Desert Storm," Matt Ciszkawski, 44, of the Bay Area said with a laugh.
Inside the security ring, bomb-sniffing dogs and law enforcement officers patrolled the complex while fans entering the stadium faced airport style security, passing through metal detectors and pat downs.
Overhead Black Hawk helicopters circled while Air Force fighter jets enforced a no fly zone.
Fans looking for last minute deals for tickets were not going to find them with the average price on resale site StubHub sitting at $4,577 just hours before the opening kickoff.
Buyers from as far away as England, Germany, Kuwait and even New Zealand have purchased tickets for Super Bowl 50.
While the 17-1 Panthers entered the championship game as almost a touchdown favourite the majority of the 72,000 fans filing into Levi's Stadium were decked out in Broncos orange.
One of the big questions hanging over the Super Bowl is whether it will be Denver quarterback Peyton Manning's last game of an illustrious career that has included a record five league most valuable player awards.
As Manning stepped onto the field for warmups fans reached for their cameras to record what could be the future Hall of Famer's last NFL appearance.
ESPN reported that Manning was near tears when he addressed the team on Saturday but gave no hint to team mates as to whether this was his last game.
