Friday was a “record-breaking night” for Netflix.
According to the broadcaster, approximately 60 million households around the world are watching the fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson live. At its peak, the number of concurrent streams of events reached 65 million.
The co-main event, Amanda Serrano vs. Katie Taylor, was watched by nearly 50 million households and was touted by Netflix as “likely to be the most-watched women’s professional sports event in U.S. history,” according to a press release. are.
Joe Hands Promotions partnered with Netflix to distribute the event to more than 6,000 bars and restaurants across the United States, also setting a record for commercial distribution of a martial arts event in the company’s more than 50-year history.
On X (formerly Twitter), #PaulTyson was the #1 trending topic worldwide, and #Serrano was #2 in each state, Brazil, Spain, and Canada.
The fight also broke financial records, with ticket sales exceeding $18 million, doubling the previous records for boxing and MMA combat sports, and making it the largest boxing match outside of Las Vegas in U.S. history.
Paul vs. Tyson took place in Arlington, Texas, where the former YouTube star defeated the undisputed heavyweight champion. Anticipation leading up to the bout was incredibly high, but it rose even more after Tyson slapped Paul, following an incident in which the 27-year-old allegedly stepped on the pole during that day’s weigh-in.
Tyson said after the incident, “I was wearing socks and he was wearing shoes.” “He stepped on my toe because he’s an asshole. I’d like to think it happened by accident. But now I think it happened on purpose. It hurt so bad. I had to repay it.”
However, fans who tuned in to Netflix throughout the night encountered technical issues, including buffering and freezing during the live event. And this wasn’t the first time the megastreamer faced technical issues during a live event. Last year, the Love Is Blind Season 4 live reunion was delayed by more than an hour due to an issue.
