Over 60 million households worldwide watched the weekend boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, which marked Netflix’s first foray into live boxing.
Netflix said the fight, which took place at the AT&T Stadium in Texas, peaked at 65 million concurrent streams.
Former world heavyweight champion Tyson, 58, was beaten by YouTuber-turned-fighter Paul, 27.
The streamer described the live broadcast as a record-breaking night for Netflix.
However, some viewers reported experiencing buffering issues on the site, and some said they simply couldn’t get onto it.
According to Bloomberg, this was acknowledged by Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone who wrote an internal memo to employees saying: “This unprecedented scale created many technical challenges, which the launch team tackled brilliantly by prioritising stability of the stream for the majority of viewers.”
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The streamer said that nearly 50 million households globally tuned in live for the co-main event of Amanda Serrano vs. Katie Taylor. Netflix said the bout is likely to be the most watched professional women’s sporting event in US history.
Joe Hand Promotions also distributed the event to over 6,000 bars and restaurants in the US.
The fight attracted a star-studded ringside audience including Evander Holyfield, Shaquille O’Neal, Sugar Ray Leonard, Jerry Jones, Charlize Theron, and Lennox Lewis.
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