While CBS continues to issue press releases about the huge numbers racked up by its coverage of Sunday’s Super Bowl, the cable channel Animal Planet has its own record numbers to crow about. The channel announced that its Puppy Bowl IX delivered a record audience of more than 12.4 million unique viewers over the course of the event’s 12-hour marathon.

“During the Super Bowl blackout, all of Puppy Bowl IX’s lights remained on, and its viewership surged to 1.1M P2+ viewers from 8:51-9:00 PM (ET/PT),” Animal Planet announced. “This marked a 54 percent increase compared to the delivery in the prior Puppy Bowl IX segment.”

The program’s premiere telecast from 3-5 p.m. (ET/PT) topped 2.6 million total viewers, rising 64% from year-ago levels, the network said.

“Puppy Bowl IX was the most-buzzed-about show in all of cable, having the most tweets all day Sunday and coming in second overall only to the Super Bowl,” the channel noted. “The premiere telecast generated nearly 300,000 tweets, pummeling last year’s total-day record of 214,000 tweets within the first telecast alone. Doubling last year’s performance, Puppy Bowl IX produced 10 U.S. trending topics on Twitter throughout the day, including #PuppyBowl and #CuteCam. Several celebrities joined in on the #PuppyBowl fun, including Steve Martin, Miley Cyrus, Zach Braff, Martha Stewart and Mandy Moore.”