Netflix’s Christmas Day NFL experiment seems to have paid off.
According to data released by Nielsen’s “The Gauge” for the month of December, and later reported by Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal, Netflix posted its highest share of streaming viewership since July 2023 last month, in part thanks to the streamer’s Christmas Day NFL doubleheader.
Per Nielsen, Netflix captured 8.5% of all streaming viewership in the United States during the month of December. For comparison, that is up from a share of 7.7% in November and 7.5% in October. YouTube remained atop The Gauge for December, accounting for 11.1% of all streaming viewership.
The pair of games averaged 24.2 million viewers for the streamer, a number that was down from the previous year’s Christmas Day games on broadcast television but was the most-streamed live sporting event ever in the United States.
Netflix released some key titles during the month of December — including season two of Squid Games — that also helped lift the streamer, so it’s difficult to assess just how many subscribers signed up to watch the NFL versus a new show. However, the signup data tells a huge success story for Netflix.
Citing data from research firm Antenna, Sports Business Journal reports that Netflix secured approximately 656,000 signups during the three-day period of December 24-26, approximately tenfold the streamer’s normal level of signups (50,000 to 70,000). Per Antenna, Netflix secured a whopping 1.43 million subscribers for the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight in November, perhaps lending a bit of credence to Netflix’s lofty viewership claims from that event.
With those two data points as their guide, Netflix’s foray into live sports content could accelerate sooner rather than later. The streamer has already secured rights to the Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031 and will have another slate of NFL games next Christmas.
December’s data is simply the latest example of live sports driving significant subscription growth for streaming services.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.