With two highly anticipated NFL games and a major endorsement from BeyoncĂ©, Netflix has created a major cultural moment for the streaming industry and marked a major milestone as the service evolves further into live sports. However, the event failed to surpass last year’s TV broadcast ratings.
Netflix on Thursday said its two Christmas NFL games – Kansas City Chiefs vs. Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans – attracted tens of millions of viewers to the Los Gatos, California-based streaming service.
The Ravens-Texans game averaged 24.3 million U.S. viewers on Wednesday, compared with the previous Chiefs-Steelers game that averaged 24.1 million, according to Nielsen data released by Netflix. BeyoncĂ©’s halftime performance during the Ravens-Texans game peaked viewership at 27 million, the company said. Worldwide streaming figures will be released in the coming days.
The strong numbers come after Netflix’s boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson attracted massive viewership for the platform, even though many users suffered from buffering and other technical issues. The event, Netflix’s first professional live sports event, attracted 65 million concurrent streaming households and 108 million viewers worldwide, the company said.
Netflix’s numbers are a sign of the potential of streaming as a means of broadcasting sports. However, viewership ratings did not surpass those of traditional TV. Last year’s most-watched Christmas game averaged 29.2 million viewers on CBS, according to Nielsen data.
In addition to Netflix traffic, Wednesday’s game data included local market viewing of CBS and NFL+ mobile viewing, the company said.
NFL fans are accustomed to turning on old-school broadcasters for football matchups, despite the growing popularity of on-demand streaming and live programming.
NFL games on Netflix were widely seen as a defining moment for the streaming industry, combining America’s most popular sport with the largest global subscription streaming platform. Streaming services will feature sports leagues, with Amazon securing Thursday Night Football and upcoming NBA games, and Apple offering Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer games on Friday nights. The rights to have been swallowed up.
“Amazon, YouTube, Apple, and now Netflix are all completely mixed,” said Paul Verna, vice president of content at market research firm Emarketer. Netflix’s NFL Christmas broadcast is “throwing our hat in the ring for live sports.”
The entry of tech titans has also driven up sports rights prices. Traditional TV networks are often willing to pay big money to keep games live. This is one of the few things that can be watched by a huge number of people at any given time.
Netflix reportedly paid $150 million for the first two NFL games. The service will also carry at least one NFL Christmas game in 2025 and 2026 as part of a three-year deal with the league.
CBS Sports produced the game and NFL Media produced the pre-, post- and studio halftime programs.
“Giving our members a record-breaking day of two NFL games was the best Christmas gift we could deliver,” Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, said in a statement.
Compared to some of its more prominent streaming competitors, Netflix has been slower to get into sports.
Prior to the Paul vs. Tyson fight, Netflix’s live sports activities included sports documentaries and events such as exhibition golf and tennis tournaments. Last week, Netflix signaled bigger ambitions by signing a deal to stream the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031. Because of Netflix’s attempted audience and, crucially, advertiser appeal, the company has been gradually upping its game in this area. To the court.
“Other companies have started small and grown from there. I see Netflix moving in exactly the same direction,” Verna said.
None of the Christmas games were very close. In the first game of the day, Kansas City beat Pittsburgh 29-10. Baltimore defeated Texas 31-2.
From a technical standpoint, Netflix’s NFL games were a much more seamless viewing experience for those watching compared to the Paul vs. Tyson game, when the company’s service was overwhelmed by demand. These issues have raised the stakes for Netflix, which has struggled to prepare for another massive influx of viewers.
The streaming giant has about 283 million subscribers worldwide, with nearly 85 million in the U.S. and Canada.
Netflix has done its best to Netflixify broadcast television, adding commercial breaks as promotions for upcoming shows and movies (including Season 2 of “Squid Game,” which debuted Thursday, and the second season of “The Night Agent”). . “(Starring Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz).
The show also featured Netflix comedians Bert Kreischer and Nate Bargatze. Bargatze’s latest stand-up special has just debuted on the service.
But by far the event’s biggest non-athletic attraction was BeyoncĂ©’s halftime performance at the Ravens-Texans contest in the singer’s hometown of Houston. The artist debuted her latest album, the country-tinged “Cowboy Carter,” which celebrates her Southern roots ahead of February’s Grammy Awards, where she will compete for album of the year.
Times music critic Mikael Wood called the performance “thrilling from top to bottom.” “For all the cross-promotional synergy, her halftime show was a reminder that whatever lures Beyonce out of her superstar cocoon is worth celebrating,” Wood wrote.
Regular season NFL games typically do not have halftime shows, which is reserved for larger games like the Super Bowl. But the decision to add Beyoncé to the mix was a wise one, Verna said.
“It got a lot more press and attention because everyone knew Beyoncé was going to perform,” he said. “Netflix was smart to watch these Christmas games and it wasn’t a bad idea to watch the halftime show either.”
