Santa brought a huge Christmas gift for Netflix after it splashed $150 million to air two NFL games exclusively during the holiday season this year.
The streaming platform registered its most-watched Christmas Day ever in the U.S. thanks to the coverage of the Kansas City Chiefs-Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens-Houston Texans games on December 25, which reached viewers from 218 countries and territories around the world. The two matchups averaged 26.5 million viewers in America, according to Nielsen Big Data + Panel.
The Chiefs’ 29-10 win over the Steelers drew a 30 million global average minute audience (AMA) before the Ravens’ 31-2 victory against the Texans recorded a 31.3 million global AMA. The two games ranked top two on Netflix’s Global Top 10 for the week while hitting the Top 10 in multiple countries, according to a press release.
The Christmas Day slate also generated a humongous buzz on social media with players, performers including Beyonce, who headlined the halftime show during Ravens vs. Texans and hashtags trending on X in the U.S., Australia, Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Mexico, Spain, and the UK throughout the day. The two games recorded over 1 billion impressions across Netflix and NFL global social handles.
The streaming giant debuted as the NFL’s media partner this year as part of a three-year partnership to air the league’s games on Christmas Day. CBS Sports produced the broadcast while NFL Media handled the pre, post, and studio halftime programming.
Netflix brought in some of the biggest names in sports media for the occasion with the likes of Drew Brees, Robert Griffin III, Kay Adams, Mina Kimes, Scott Hanson, Noah Eagle, and Greg Olsen sitting in the studio and the announcers’ booth. And it was generally lauded for the quality of the broadcast despite some early hiccups, learning from the struggles endured during the blockbuster Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight in November.
Netflix’s NFL Christmas Day gamble didn’t come without controversy, though. Many fans bemoaned the league’s decision to air games on another streaming platform, away from cable. The venture also irked the NBA world with the Association having to compete for viewers on the day it has traditionally offered a special holiday lineup for years.
“Merry Christmas to my family back home I’m coming home,” LeBron James said after leading his Los Angeles Lakers to a 115-113 win over the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day. “And I love the NFL. I love the NFL. But Christmas is our day.”
But it turned out that live NFL and NBA action can coexist on Christmas Day. Amid falling viewership numbers, the Association attracted its biggest Christmas Day audience in five years, reporting an 84 percent increase year-on-year.
However, those numbers were still dwarfed by the NFL’s. The NBA averaged 5.25 million viewers per game in the U.S. The Lakers-Warriors clash was the most-watched matchup with an average of 7.76 million viewers.
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