17-11-2024 (TEXAS) Netflix has announced record-breaking viewership figures for its first major live boxing event, with the Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson bout drawing an unprecedented 60 million household viewers globally, marking a significant milestone in sports streaming history.
The highly anticipated match, which saw 27-year-old social media personality Paul defeat former heavyweight champion Tyson, 58, reached a peak of 65 million concurrent streams, establishing new benchmarks for live sports content on the streaming platform.
The supporting bout between lightweight champion Katie Taylor and featherweight champion Amanda Serrano also achieved remarkable success, attracting nearly 50 million household viewers. Netflix officials have declared this contest potentially “the most watched professional women’s sporting event in US history.”
“This event represents a watershed moment for sports streaming,” said media analyst James Harrison of Digital Sports Media Watch. “These numbers demonstrate the shifting landscape of sports consumption from traditional broadcast to streaming platforms.”
Despite the event’s success, technical challenges emerged during the broadcast, with outage tracking service Downdetector recording over 90,000 user complaints at the peak of streaming issues. The platform experienced approximately six hours of service disruption across the United States before engineers restored full functionality.
Industry experts suggest this landmark event could reshape the future of sports broadcasting. “These viewing figures will likely prompt other streaming services to pursue similar high-profile sporting events,” noted Sarah Williams, senior sports media consultant at MediaTech Associates.
