It was a “record-breaking night” for Netflix on Friday.
Nearly 60 million households tuned in for Jake Paul and Mike Tyson‘s fight live around the world, according to the streamer. The event peaked at 65 million concurrent streams.
As for the co-main event of Amanda Serrano versus Katie Taylor, nearly 50 million households tuned in, with Netflix touting it’s “likely to be the most-watched professional women’s sporting event in U.S. history,” per a press release.
Joe Hands Promotion partnered with Netflix to distribute the event to over 6,000 bars and restaurants across the United States, which also set a record for commercial distribution of a combat sports event in the company’s more than 50-year history.
On X (formerly Twitter), #PaulTyson was the No. 1 trending topic worldwide, and #Serrano was No. 2 in the states, Brazil, Spain and Canada.
The fight also broke financial records, making more than $18 million in ticket sales, which doubled the previous record for combat sports in boxing and MMA and making it the biggest boxing match outside of Las Vegas in U.S. history.
Paul vs. Tyson took place in Arlington, Texas, and saw the former YouTube star defeat the undisputed heavyweight champ. Anticipation leading up to the fight was incredibly high and only climbed after Tyson slapped Paul during the weigh-in earlier in the day after the 27-year-old allegedly stepped on him.
“I was in my socks, and he had on shoes,” Tyson said following the incident. “He stepped on my toe because he is a fucking asshole. I want to think it happened by accident. But now I think it may have happened on purpose. I was in a lot of pain. I had to reciprocate.”
Throughout the night, however, fans who tuned in on Netflix were met with technical issues, including buffering and freezing during the live event. And this wasn’t the first time the mega-streamer faced technical problems during a live event. Last year, the live reunion of Love Is Blind season four was delayed more than an hour due to issues.
Source: Hollywoodreporter
