More than 60 million households around the world tuned in for the exhibition boxing bout between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson on Netflix, making it the most successful live stream on the platform to date.
The main event between the influencer-turned-pugilist and the former heavyweight champion of the world peaked at 65 million concurrent streams, with more than 50 million tuning in for the highly anticipated rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.
Netflix says that figure means the fight is likely to be the most-watched women’s sporting event in US history. The event attracted 72,500 spectators at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas, making it the best-attended boxing event ever outside of Las Vegas in the US, with gate receipts exceeding US$18 million.
The contest between Taylor and Serrano is the most significant live sporting event to be streamed by Netflix, which has held a series of sports-themed exhibition events in the past year in a bid to attract subscribers and test out its live infrastructure ahead of global deals with the National Football League (NFL) and WWE.
However, the main event was criticised for its in-ring quality while the live stream was once again plagued by complaints of connection issues and buffering. While Paul wore this as a badge of honour, declaring “We crashed the site”, Netflix has been more guarded.
An internal memo from Netflix chief technology officer (CTO) Elizabeth Stone seen by Bloomberg said: “This unprecedented scale created many technical challenges, which the launch team tackled brilliantly by prioritising stability of the stream for the majority of viewers.
“I’m sure many of you have seen the chatter in the press and on social media about the quality issues.
“We don’t want to dismiss the poor experience of some members, and know we have room for improvement, but still consider this event a huge success.”
By SportsProMedia
