The NFL is undefeated. The league has traditionally not had a big presence on Christmas Day, and unless the holiday falls on a weekend has historically been content to let the NBA rule the yuletide airwaves. But that changed in 2024, as Netflix streamed two games live on Christmas. Both the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans games were lopsided duds, but new data from Nielsen shows that it didn’t matter to audiences, who made the games the most-streamed NFL contests in history.

Key Details:

• Both games saw an average minute audience of over 24 million viewers.
• The Ravens vs. Texans halftime show featuring Beyoncé peaked at 27 million viewers.
• Netflix will stream games on Christmas in 2025, as well.

According to Nielsen and Netflix, the two games both saw average minute audiences (AMA) of over 24 million people. The Chiefs vs. Steelers game drew 24.1 million, while the Ravens vs. Texans brought in 24.3 million. In total, the games saw 65 million viewers across the United States tune in at some point.

The “Beyoncé Bowl” halftime show of the Ravens vs. Texans game was also a big draw, peaking at 27 million viewers. Global ratings and more insights into the domestic data will be released on New Year’s Eve, according to a Netflix release touting the numbers.

While there were numerous reports of buffering issues and other glitches for the games, the issues experienced appear to be mild compared to the problems that surfaced for the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson boxing match in November. That stream was fairly disastrous from a technical standpoint, with hundreds of thousands of viewers reporting they couldn’t watch. Nevertheless, 108 million people worldwide tuned into the fight.

“Bringing our members this record-breaking day of two NFL games was the best Christmas gift we could have delivered,” Netflix’s chief content officer Bela Bajaria said. “We’re thankful for our partnership with the NFL, all of our wonderful on-air talent, and let’s please not forget the electrifying Beyoncé and the brilliant Mariah Carey.”

The data means that Netflix is dethroning Peacock, which formerly held the record for the most-streamed NFL game in history. Peacock was the exclusive home of the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Miami Dolphins NFL Wild Card game in January 2024, and at the time that game captured the record for most-streamed sporting event in U.S. history, with 23 million viewers.

The numbers are undoubtedly a big win for Netflix and the NFL, who have a greed to partner for game streams in 2025 and 2026, as well. This year’s experiment has proven the viability of NFL games on Netflix, which could lead to a wider partnership when the league’s media rights come up for sale as soon as 2030.

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