Friday night’s fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson fell short of expectations in the ring but exceeded streaming records for Netflix by drawing 60 million viewers, the company announced Saturday.
Netflix called it a “record-breaking night” and said the bout peaked at 65 million concurrent streams. The stream wasn’t without issues as Netflix struggled to keep up with the high demand and viewers complained of freezing, buffering and resolution problems. Netflix streamed the bout to its hundreds of millions of subscribers without charging extra fees.
Viewers noticed issues early in the night, which included three other fights on the card, and flooded Netflix’s social media accounts with comments about the glitchy stream. There were issues with former boxer Evander Holyfield’s earpiece and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ microphone malfunctioning during separate interviews. (The fights were staged at AT&T Stadium, home of the Cowboys.)
Netflix declined comment Friday night regarding the technical issues.
Despite the streaming snafus, nearly 50 million viewers also tuned in for the co-main event between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. Taylor won their rematch in a controversial decision, even after she had a point deducted for headbutting Serrano in the eighth round.
Paul, 27, beat Tyson, 58, in a lackluster bout that consisted of eight two-minute rounds. Tyson had momentary flashes of his presence during his heyday in the 1980s and early ’90s but only landed 18 punches. Paul spent much of the fight dancing around Tyson and said afterword that he didn’t want to hurt Tyson.
(Photo: Sarah Stier / Getty Images for Netflix © 2024)
