At its peak, 65 million people tuned in to Netflix on Friday to watch Jake Paul and Mike Tyson to fight — or, however you want to describe it.
The streamer touted the audience as a “record-breaking night” in what was its biggest live production to date. Overall, an estimated 60 million households globally streamed the Friday’s main event boxing match, which took place at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas, with the audience peaking at 65 million “concurrent stream,” according to Netflix. The undercard match between Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor also drew an impressive rating of 50 million viewers.
Yet, Netflix’s livestream wasn’t without issues. Many viewers reported issues with buffering throughout the broadcast, while the fight between the 27-year-old Paul and 58-year-old Tyson left much to be desired.
“This unprecedented scale created many technical challenges, which the launch team tackled brilliantly by prioritizing stability of the stream for the majority of viewers,” Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone said in a note to employees. “I’m sure many of you have seen the chatter in the press and on social media about the quality issues. We don’t want to dismiss the poor experience of some members, and know we have room for improvement, but still consider this event a huge success.”
Netflix will next air two live NFL games on Christmas Day 2024, while WWE Raw will stream live on the platform beginning in January 2025.