The match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson attracted 65 million viewers at its peak
Netflix Inc.’s Breakthrough entered the sports live streaming industry with a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul that attracted a large global audience, peaking at 65 million viewers but led to thousands of complaints from viewers about incidents connection and screen freezes.
“We crashed the website,” Paul, 27, said after declaring victory over 58-year-old Tyson. “This is the biggest event.”
In an internal company memo seen by Bloomberg News, Chief Technology Officer Elizabeth Stone said the match attracted a maximum of 65 million concurrent viewers, rivaling some of the most followed sporting events. most followed.
Some viewers took to social media to express their frustration over the hiccups in streaming the highly anticipated match. More than 100,000 users reported network issues on the Down detector website during the live stream, commenting on slow loading and network issues. Even boxer Evander Holyfield struggled to listen to the host when asked about his infamous fight with Tyson.
Netflix declined to comment on the overall outcome of the event.
The company’s biggest livestream event is part of its ambition to boost its fledgling advertising business. Netflix has been investing in the ability to live stream major events like boxing matches after previous streaming missteps like the Love is blind failed reunion. The platform ran a teaser of upcoming NFL games on Christmas Day during Friday’s game.
The fight between former heavyweight champion Tyson and boxer-turned-Youtuber Paul at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, fell short of expectations, leading critics to call it a faint. The judges unanimously decided that Paul had won the fight after eight rounds without a knockout.
Tyson is coming out of retirement to face Paul, which is expected to be a major subscription driver for Netflix. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, there is room for a 10 million overall profit in the fourth quarter, 11% above consensus.
Before the match, users on the social networking site X complained that they couldn’t stream the event, with one person sarcastically thanking Netflix for “bringing us back to the glory days of dial-up internet.”
“Seriously? Aren’t you sure you won’t have server problems?” a user named TheYounger posted in response to Netflix’s post promoting the fight.
