Way more people will be tweeting, posting, during this year’s Super Bowl

Nearly half of smartphone and/or tablet owners will be using apps — mainly social apps — while watching the game today.

That’s what a recent survey from analytics firm SOASTA found.

The study found that nearly half (46 percent) of smartphone and tablet owners plan on using mobile apps while watching this year’s Super Bowl, an increase from the 41 percent who said they would be doing so during the 2014 game.

SOASTA’s survey was conducted online by Harris Poll from Jan. 21-23 among 2,057 adults, 1,496 of which own smartphones or tablets.

One-third (32 percent) of smartphone/tablet owners said they will use social media apps like Facebook and Twitter. Twenty percent said they’d be using apps like ESPN and Sports Illustrated. Nineteen percent said they’d probably play some Candy Crush Saga or Trivia Crack during the game.

Nearly two out of three (63 percent) people said online and mobile activities will be “critical” to their experience watching the Super Bowl.

The vast majority of male Millennials (84 percent) said they’ll be using apps to multitask on their smartphones and tablets while watching the big game.

Something like 184 million Americans will watch the Super bowl today, and advertisers and marketers have beefed up their social strategies to capture and engage as many of those eyeballs as possible.

Last year, big brands were posted or tweeted about six times more than they are on a normal day. Twitter said people tweeted 25 million times about the 2014 game and the ads.

Super Bowl ads remain ridiculously expensive — $4.5 million per 30-second slot, on average — and yet advertisers have a very difficult time measuring the real results of TV ads. When consumers express opinions about brands (and their Super Bowl ads) online, the advertisers get a far better bang for their buck.