The NFL‘s Christmas Day doubleheader on Netflix was highly anticipated, as it featured four high-profile teams — the Kansas City Chiefs, Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens, and Houston Texans — plus performances by Beyoncé and Mariah Carey, among others.
Many people were curious how many viewers would tune in for Netflix’s Christmas NFL games, and the early numbers did not disappoint.
Netflix Gets Christmas Present As One-Third of All Subscribers Watched NFL Games
Netflix announced that nearly one-third of its global concurrents were watching the Chiefs-Steelers game. There were viewers from over 200 countries who watched the game.
Netflix eclipsed its peak concurrent viewers of any Christmas over the past four years.
🚨#NFLonNetflix Stats Update🚨
– Over 200 countries tuned in at some point during Chiefs vs. Steelers
– Chiefs vs. Steelers is already the 2nd most popular Live title on Netflix to date
– Nearly 1/3 of Netflix’s Global Concurrents are watching Chiefs vs. Steelers
– Netflix…
— NFL Media (@NFLMedia) December 25, 2024
Prior to the event, Netflix reportedly expected roughly 35 million viewers, but it sounds like the viewership exceeded their expectations.
“Last year, we decided to take a big bet on live — tapping into massive fandoms across comedy, reality TV, sports, and more,” said Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer before the games. “There are no live annual events, sports or otherwise, that compare with the audiences NFL football attracts. We’re so excited that the NFL’s Christmas Day games will be only on Netflix.”
The NFL can’t complain about the revenue, as they got paid $150 million to air the games exclusively on Netflix. The streamer will air the league’s Christmas games through 2026.
“We couldn’t be more excited to be the first professional sports league to partner with Netflix to bring live games to fans around the world,” added NFL executive vice president of media distribution Hans Schroeder. “The NFL on Christmas has become a tradition and to partner with Netflix, a service whose biggest day of the year is typically this holiday, is the perfect combination to grow this event globally for NFL fans.”
The NFL’s normal broadcast reach would not normally stretch to this many countries. This is one of the benefits of airing games on Netflix, which has a global audience.
Fans took to social media to praise the Netflix games. Some were happy to see the streaming service tap into the market and take away a share from the major networks, including ESPN.
It’s a smart move financially to buy the rights to the game since there are a number of folks that will hang on to the subscription after the game and it will be recurring revenue until they cancel (if they cancel)
— Matthias Smith, CEO – Pioneer Capital Advisory LLC (@SBA_Matthias) December 25, 2024
“Good, need to end ESPN’s sports monopoly,” one fan said. “Need the streamers to continue entering college and professional sports.”
Others pointed out that many subscribers likely bought Netflix for the football games and they might just keep it after the games to watch the rest of their programming.
“It’s a smart move financially to buy the rights to the game since there are a number of folks that will hang on to the subscription after the game and it will be recurring revenue until they cancel (if they cancel),” another fan said.
Good, need to end ESPN’s sports monopoly. Need the streamers to continue entering college and professional sports.
— Rick Junior (@mrrickjunior) December 25, 2024
Netflix is involved with other live sporting events, as they recently had the Logan Paul vs. Mike Tyson boxing match. They also take over weekly WWE wrestling programming in January.
In the next day or so, we should get an idea of exactly how many total viewers tuned in for the NFL doubleheader, but these stats coming out are already quite impressive.