It turned out that more than just Americans were curious about live football matches and a Beyoncé performance on Netflix.
The streamer’s big ‘NFL Christmas Gameday Live’ stunt drew a broadcast network-level audience in the US, and it prompted subscribers in more than 200 countries to watch part of the nearly nine-hour broadcast, which began with the Kansas City Chiefs at the Pittsburgh Steelers, followed by the Baltimore Ravens at the Houston Texans. At halftime of the last game, the Houston native was a superstar Beyonce played a short set of songs from her album “Cowboy Carter”. That game’s viewership peaked at 27 million viewers during her performance, which ran from approximately 6:05 PM ET to 6:20 PM ET. It was a heavily promoted appearance by Queen Bey, intended to draw attention to the fact that the games were on Netflix — debuting as the NFL’s live gaming partner — and to bring more casual viewers to the streamer’s big Christmas Day experience. Mariah Carey kicked off the first game with a rendition of her Christmas song, “All I Want for Christmas.”
Netflix cited Nielsen measurements that showed the Ravens-Texans game averaged 24.3 million viewers, while the earlier Chiefs-Steelers game drew 24.1 million viewers. Those are more than respectable numbers for Netflix’s first outing and at the high end of what CBS, Fox, NBC or ESPN could yield with a highly anticipated NFL or college football game. These numbers do not reflect the audience for Netflix’s full coverage, which started at 11 a.m. ET with a pregame show and ran through the postgame forensics of the Ravens’ 31-2 upset of the Texans. And the reigning champion Chiefs made quick work of the Steelers with a 29-10 win.
“Bringing our members this record-breaking day of two NFL games was the best Christmas gift we could have given,” said Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s Chief Content Officer. “We are grateful for our partnership with the NFL, all of our amazing on-air talent, and please let’s not forget the electrifying Beyoncé and the brilliant Mariah Carey.”
At the height of the Chiefs-Steelers game, one-third of global Netflix subscribers were watching the broadcast, Netflix said. Netflix filled the day with a steady stream of trailers, teases and promotional videos supporting a wide range of upcoming series and films, from Adam Sandler’s ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ to ‘Squid Game,’ which debuted the highly anticipated Season 2. December 26.
“We are thrilled to be launching our first Christmas Gameday on Netflix, streaming NFL games to a global audience,” said Hans Schroeder, NFL executive vice president of media distribution. “Fans in all 50 states and more than 200 countries around the world watched some of the league’s brightest stars, along with a dazzling performance from Beyoncé on a historic day for the NFL.”
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Beyoncé performs with her daughter, Blue Ivy, during the halftime show for the Baltimore Ravens-Houston Texans game on Christmas Day, live on Netflix (Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
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It was a big Christmas day for sporting events everywhere. The NBA, which has long labeled Christmas Day as one of the most important regular-season games, achieved its most-watched game in five years on Dec. 25, the league said. The five NBA games averaged 5.25 million viewers per game in the US across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, Disney+ and ESPN+. The biggest was the last-second nail-biter as LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers battled Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors (Lakers prevailed 115-113), which drew 7.8 million viewers, peaking in the last half. hour with 8.2 million. All told, NBA viewership for the day was up 84% from 2023, according to the league.
Lakers superstar James even made a comment in his post-game interview that the Christmas Day game action belongs to the NBA. The NFL has played on December 25 on and off since 1971, but 2024 marks the fourth straight year the league has spotlighted the day. As part of the NFL’s massive 10-year, $100 billion TV contract extension deal agreed to in March 2021, Netflix will commit $150 million to carry NFL games on Christmas Day for three years. The deal guaranteed the streamer two games in the first year and at least one game for 2025 and 2026. The agreement is risky for the NFL given the potential for backlash from passionate football fans who don’t have access to Netflix. That sentiment was prevalent on social media during Wednesday’s daylong broadcast. But Netflix has made it through more than eight hours of live game coverage and pre- and post-game shows without a major technical crisis, which in itself is a win for the streamer. The live game coverage was produced for Netflix by CBS Sports, while the remaining wrap-around programming was produced by NFL Network. EverWonder Studio, a company backed by Jeff Zucker’s RedBird IMI, produced NFL Christmas Gameday.
Netflix is increasingly focusing on live sports and events as its business evolves and sponsorship deals become a priority at the ad-supported level. At the same time, Netflix provides the NFL with simple, unified access to high-end TV consumers around the world in one fell swoop. The league has invested significantly in recent years in efforts to popularize American football in Europe, Latin America and other key territories, with a schedule of regular season matches played in cities such as London, Munich, Frankfurt, São Paulo and Mexico City. and Toronto in recent years.
The global nature of the Netflix platform and subscriber base makes it difficult to compare Wednesday’s audience turnout to other NFL broadcasts. Last year, NBCUniversal’s Peacock streamer attracted about 10 million viewers with its exclusive Dec. 23 broadcast of a Buffalo Bills-Los Angeles Chargers game, which aired on a Saturday night with less promotion than Netflix did during its experiment.
(Image above: Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs speak with NFL Network reporter Stacey Dales on December 25 after the Chiefs sealed a 29-10 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers)
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