As expected, Netflix boasted an impressive audience for its two NFL matchups on Christmas Day.
The Chiefs-Steelers and Ravens-Texans served up an unreplicated audience of nearly 65 million U.S. viewers on Dec. 25, according to same-day Live+ data from Nielsen.
The second match of the day attracted a slightly larger crowd, no doubt thanks to Beyoncé's first-half performance.
The Baltimore Ravens' win over the Houston Texans averaged 24.3 million viewers per minute, with U.S. viewership peaking at over 27 million viewers during the halftime show. It was also the most watched NFL Day Christmas game of all time (since 2001) among the 18-34 demo with 5.1 million tuning in.
Meanwhile, the Kansas City Chiefs started the day outscoring the Pittsburgh Steelers in an AMA of 24.1 million viewers.
For reference, these audiences are roughly on par with the typical broadcast audiences for NFL games on Christmas Day, although slightly lower. Last year, the Chiefs-Raiders game became the most-watched regular-season game on Christmas Day ever with 29.2 million viewers. Eagles-Giants had 29 million that day, while 49ers-Ravens managed 27.1 million.
Netflix will likely show its edge with the global audience for these games, although that data isn't quite available yet. Netflix says more numbers will be released on December 31. This data is based on Nielsen's Rapid Nationals, which includes out-of-home viewing and CBS viewing for the local market along with mobile and web data from Netflix and NFL+ mobile viewing from the NFL.
This year marked the beginning of a three-season deal for Netflix to stream NFL games on Christmas Day, and those numbers certainly bode well for the years to come. Under the deal, the streamer will broadcast at least one holiday game in 2025 and 2026.
Netflix did everything it could to attract a massive audience, including Mariah Carey's opening act and, of course, Beyoncé's raucous halftime show that rivaled any Super Bowl performance. Anyone who missed it will be able to stream Beyoncé's show as a standalone special later this week.
