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Netflix scored a big win on Christmas with its two nearly glitch-free, live NFL games that featured a halftime show from Beyoncé — garnering an average concurrent audience of roughly 24 million viewers.
The Big Game: Netflix has been a hit or miss with the quality of its livestreams because… well… it’s really hard to handle immense global viewership on the internet. The success of the NFL games shows that the streamer can officially handle the traffic for more consistent, live-event programming down the road.
Behind the Plays: Netflix is doing a little touchdown dance with the first roster of NFL-game metrics.
- The first game (Chiefs vs. Steelers) had an average-minute audience of 24.1 million, while the second game (Texans vs. Ravens) had an audience of 24.3 million.
- Beyoncé’s halftime show had an average-minute audience of 27 million.
- When the final tally comes in (international audience data is still forthcoming), the average-minute audience will likely hit 30 million.
- In total, Netflix says that the entire day’s programming was viewed by at least 65 million unique accounts spread across all 190 countries it operates.
Final Score: Netflix needed this win. Although it racked up huge viewership, its Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight was plagued by glitches. According to Forbes, Netflix paid north of $150 million for the game day rights and, of course, rolled out the Brinks truck for Beyoncé. Additionally, it has WWE’s Monday Night Raw starting next year and recently signed a deal to stream the FIFA Women’s World Cup for its next two editions. Now that Netflix has proven to have the tech to match its reach, it’s only a matter of time until the company is outbidding everyone else for full league rights.
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