Netflix Inc NFLX made headlines over the weekend, both good and bad, thanks to its highly anticipated live boxing stream featuring Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. The younger Paul won via unanimous decision.
The event could be a huge win for Netflix as it ramps up live events, but Friday's fight night showed that sometimes demand is too high and can cause problems even for streamers.
What Happened: Friday’s fight card, postponed from an earlier 2024 date, featured the Paul vs. Tyson fight, which pitted one of the upcoming boxers and social media stars (Paul) against one of the most recognized and most awarded boxers in history (Tyson).
While Paul won the fight, many on social media Friday night labeled Netflix—or themselves as viewers—the real losers, as high traffic from the Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano fight preceding the main event caused Netflix to crash.
The hashtag #NetflixCrash trended on social media platform X Friday and more than one million people around the world, from 50 countries, reported issues with their stream according to DownDetector. TechCrunch said 11 p.m. ET was the peak time for issues, and around 530,000 U.S. customers reported issues with their stream.
While the issues seemed to ease during the Paul vs. Tyson fight, some customers may have abandoned watching altogether due to repeated disruptions or reports of problems experienced by other subscribers.
"Over 120 million people on Netflix. We crashed the site," Paul boasted after the fight.
Netflix said over 60 million people tuned in for the Paul vs. Tyson fight, setting records along the way.
While Netflix has experimented with live comedy specials, live award shows and a live roast of Tom Brady, this was the company's biggest test to date and the stumbles could be bad news ahead of two highly anticipated National Football League games on Christmas Day.
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What's Next: Netflix will air two games on Christmas Day, with the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers facing off at 1 p.m. ET and the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans facing off at 4:30 p.m. ET.
The games are exclusive on Netflix, outside of the local television markets for the teams playing in the two contests.
In case you were wondering if Friday's stumbles had Netflix or the NFL reconsidering the plans to stream games on Christmas Day, the streaming giant is already doubling down.
Netflix announced that Beyoncé will perform at halftime during the Ravens—Texans game in her hometown of Houston. Beyoncé will perform songs from her recent "Cowboy Carter" album and feature unnamed special guests, Netflix said.
Beyoncé previously performed during halftime of two Super Bowls, one as a headliner and one during a headline performance from Coldplay.
While Super Bowls regularly attract over 100 million viewers, which could be bad news for Netflix, it's important to remember that the average NFL game is watched by fewer people than those who tuned in for the Paul and Tyson fight.
Amazon.com Inc AMZN, which is the exclusive home of "Thursday Night Football" games, is averaging 13 million viewers per NFL game this season through Week 9, up 4% from last season. Fox Corporation FOXFOXA, which airs games on Sunday, is averaging 18.65 million viewers per NFL game.
The most watched game of the current NFL season is the Week 1 matchup of the Chiefs and Ravens, which aired on Comcast Corporation CMCSA units NBC and Peacock. The game had an average of 29.2 million viewers.
Last season, the NFL had a streaming exclusive NFL Playoffs game on Peacock. The matchup between the Miami Dolphins and Chiefs was watched by an average of 23 million people, up 6% to the prior year's playoff game and setting records along the way.
Netflix ended the third quarter with 282.72 million global paid subscribers. Now, if every single subscriber tunes into the NFL games on Christmas Day, Netflix could have serious problems, given the Paul and Tyson fight.
However, viewership for the Christmas Day games will probably be below 60 million, and given Netflix's more than one month to get things right, fewer problems will likely occur.
NFLX Price Action: Netflix stock is up 1% to $832.70 on Monday after starting the day down. Netflix stock has traded between $445.73 and $841.00 over the last 52 weeks. The stock is up 77.8% year-to-date in 2024.
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