Because it seems, extra than simply People have been curious to take a look at reside soccer video games and a Beyoncé peformance on Netflix.

The streamer’s huge “NFL Christmas Gameday Dwell” stunt drew a broadcast network-level viewers within the U.S., and it prompted subscribers in additional than 200 international locations to take a look at some a part of the almost nine-hour telecast, which began with the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs at Pittsburgh Steelers adopted by Baltimore Ravens at Houston Texans. On the halftime of the latter sport, Houston-born celebrity Beyoncé carried out a brief set of tunes from her “Cowboy Carter” album. Viewership of that sport peaked at 27 million viewers throughout her carried out, which ran from roughly 6:05 p.m. ET to six:20 p.m. ET. It was a closely promoted look by Queen Bey designed to attract consideration to the truth that the video games have been on Netflix — making its debut as a NFL reside sport accomplice — and to carry extra informal viewers to the streamer’s huge Christmas Day expertise. Mariah Carey kicked off the primary sport with a rendition of her vacation staple, “All I Need for Christmas.”

Netflix cited Nielsen measurement displaying that the Ravens-Texans sport averaged 24.3 million viewers whereas the sooner Chiefs-Steelers bout introduced in 24.1 million viewers. These are greater than respectable numbers for Netflix’s first outing and on the excessive finish of what CBS, Fox, NBC or ESPN may garner with a extremely anticipated NFL or school soccer sport. These numbers don’t mirror the viewers for the whole thing of Netflix’s protection, which started at 11 a.m. ET with a pregame present and ran by way of the post-game forensics on the Texans’ 31-2 pounding by the Ravens. And the reigning champ Chiefs made fast work of the Steelers with a 29-10 victory.

“Bringing our members this record-breaking day of two NFL video games was the very best Christmas present we may have delivered,” mentioned Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content material officer. “We’re grateful for our partnership with the NFL, all of our fantastic on-air expertise, and let’s please not overlook the electrifying Beyoncé and the sensible Mariah Carey.”

On the top of the Chiefs-Steelers sport, one-third of Netflix’s international subscribers have been watching the telecast, Netflix mentioned. Netflix padded the day with a gentle stream of trailers, teases and promotional movies in assist of a variety of upcoming sequence and films, from Adam Sandler’s “Glad Gilmore 2” to “Squid Recreation,” which unleashed its long-awaited Season 2 on Dec. 26.

“We’re thrilled with our first Christmas Gameday on Netflix with NFL video games being streamed to a world viewers,” mentioned Hans Schroeder, NFL govt vp of media distribution. “Followers in all 50 states and over 200 international locations all over the world watched among the league’s brightest stars together with a stunning efficiency by Beyoncé in a historic day for the NFL.”

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It was an enormous Christmas Day for sports activities viewing throughout. The NBA, which has lengthy staked out Christmas Day as a primary regular-season sport showcase, delivered its most-watched Dec. 25 in 5 years, the league reported. The 5 NBA video games averaged 5.25 million viewers per sport within the U.S. throughout ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, Disney+ and ESPN+. The largest was the nail-biter that went right down to the ultimate second as LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers battled Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors (Lakers prevailed 115-113), which grabbed 7.8 million viewers, peaking within the remaining half-hour with 8.2 million. All instructed, NBA viewership for the day was up 84% in comparison with 2023, in keeping with the league.

Lakers celebrity James even made a crack in his post-game interview that Christmas Day sport motion belongs to the NBA. The NFL has performed on Dec. 25 on and off since 1971 however 2024 marks the fourth consecutive yr that the league has put an enormous highlight on the day. As a part of the NFL’s huge 10-year, $100 billion TV contract renewal deal set in March 2021, Netflix will lay out $150 million to hold Christmas Day NFL video games for 3 years. The deal assured the streamer two video games in yr one and a minimum of one sport for 2025 and 2026. The settlement is dangerous for the NFL given the possibility for blowback from passionate soccer followers who don’t have entry to Netflix. That sentiment was prevelant on social media throughout Wednesday’s daylong telecast. However Netflix made it by way of eight hours-plus of reside sport protection in addition to pre-and post-game reveals and not using a main tech meltdown, which in and of itself is a victory for the streamer. The reside sport protection was produced for Netflix by CBS Sports activities whereas the remaining wrap-around programming was produced by NFL Community. EverWonder Studio, an organization backed by Jeff Zucker’s RedBird IMI, govt produced NFL Christmas Gameday. 

Netflix is more and more leaning into reside sports activities and occasions as its total enterprise evolves and as sponsorship offers develop into a precedence for the ad-supported tier. On the identical time, Netflix presents the NFL straightforward, uniform entry to high-end TV customers all over the world in a single fell swoop. The league has invested considerably in recent times in efforts to make American soccer extra fashionable in Europe, Latin America and different key territories, with a schedule of regular-season video games performed in such cities as London, Munich, Frankfurt, São Paulo, Mexico Metropolis and Toronto in recent times.

The worldwide nature of Netflix’s platform and subscriber base makes it onerous to match the viewers turnout on Wednesday to different NFL telecasts. Final yr, NBCUniversal’s Peacock streamer grabbed about 10 million viewers with its unique Dec. 23 telecast of a Buffalo Payments-Los Angeles Chargers sport, which aired on a Saturday night time with much less promotion than Netflix showered on its experiment.

(Pictured high: Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce of the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs converse with NFL Community reporter Stacey Dales on Dec. 25 after the Chiefs’ sealed a 29-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers)