The battle for Christmas is underway between the NFL and the NBA after both leagues released viewing figures for their Christmas Day slate of games on Thursday, with Netflix's first venture into streaming live football games coming in with historic numbers.
The popular streaming service moved the NFL (Steelers-Chiefs and Ravens-Texans) contests on Christmas Day, drawing an audience of nearly 65 million viewers in the United States, Netflix announced in a press release that cited Nielsen data.
According to the data, an average of 24.3 million viewers watched the Ravens and Texans — with viewership peaking at more than 27 million viewers during Beyoncé's halftime performance — and an average of 24.1 million people watched the 1 p.m. game between the Chiefs and Steelers.
The two games now hold the distinction of being the most-streamed games in NFL history.
“We are very excited about the first Christmas Gameday on Netflix where NFL games are broadcast to a global audience,” Hans Schroeder, executive vice president of media distribution for the NFL, said in a statement Thursday. “Fans in all 50 states and more than 200 countries around the world watched some of the league's brightest stars along with Beyoncé's dazzling performance on a historic day for the NFL.”
The previous record was set in January when 23 million fans tuned in to Peacock's broadcast of a playoff game between the Chiefs and Dolphins.
However, the exclusive broadcasts drew 5 million fewer viewers than last Christmas Day's slate broadcasting the games on CBS, Fox and ESPN/ABC.
Wednesday was the first time the NFL broadcast games with its new partner, Netflix.
It was the first major live broadcast produced by the streaming company since its error-plagued broadcast of the boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson last month in Dallas.
The NFL broadcast went off without any major incident, and ratings showed the league could give the NBA a fight for supremacy on Christmas Day.
The holiday has long served as a day of support for the NBA to showcase its high-profile teams and players on national television.
Steelers. USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Conn
While the NFL put on a good showing, the NBA also had its best Christmas viewing day in five years.
In its own press release, the NBA announced that the average viewership per game (for its five contests) was 5.25 million viewers in the United States on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, Disney+ and ESPN+.
They also had an 84 percent increase in viewership over last year despite new competition from the NFL.
The Knicks' dramatic win over the Spurs attracted an average viewership of 4.91 million, and the Lakers vs. Warriors game attracted the largest audience with an average of 7.76 million viewers, which peaked at 8.32 million at 10:30 pm on the Times Channel. East Coast.
“I love the NFL. I love the NFL. But Christmas is our day,” LeBron James said after the Lakers' win.
However, ratings tell a more accurate picture.
