Netflix and Amazon jingled all the best way to some large audiences on Christmas Day, due to the NFL.
Probably the most-watched recreation of the vacation proved to be the mid-afternoon Lions-Vikings match up on Netflix, which secured 27.5M stay + same-day U.S. viewers in accordance with Nielsen Large Information + Panel. This consists of out-of-home viewing, CBS native market viewing, NFL+, and cell and internet viewing throughout Netflix.
That’s just about on par with, and actually simply barely larger than, the streamer’s Ravens-Texans telecast final yr. Nielsen additionally says that U.S. viewership for this yr’s recreation peaked at simply over 30M viewers.
Globally, Netflix says that primarily based on first celebration information, the Lions-Vikings garnered a median minute viewers of 30.5M in Dwell + 1.
There was no Beyoncé Bowl this yr, however there was Snoop’s Vacation Halftime Celebration. Snoop Dogg’s efficiency averaged 29M viewers within the U.S., per Nielsen.
Earlier within the day, the Cowboys-Commanders recreation averaged 19.9M U.S. viewers, Nielsen says. Netflix provides that the L+1 international common minute viewers for this recreation got here in round 22.4M. This was a little bit of a slower begin to the day than final yr, when greater than 25M U.S. viewers tuned in for Chiefs-Steelers to kick issues off.
Whereas there have been solely two video games final yr, each hosted by Netflix, the NFL threw a 3rd recreation in at primetime this yr, which went to Prime Video‘s .
Amazon acquired the Chiefs this yr, though this time across the crew suffered a disappointing loss to the Denver Broncos that was watched by 21.06M U.S. viewers, in accordance with Nielsen.
That places it in second place among the many Christmas Day matchups, however it’s really the most-watched Thursday Night time Soccer common season recreation ever for Prime Video, eclipsing the earlier report setter, Cowboys-Lions recreation earlier within the month, by about 2M viewers.
Broncos-Chiefs additionally attracted a report excessive peak viewers for TNF on Prime ever with 22.9M viewers on the high of the 9 p.m. ET hour.
As with final yr, all three of those matchups had U.S. audiences that had been a tad decrease than the same old broadcast viewership that the NFL has attracted in years previous on Christmas Day. In 2023, a Chiefs-Raiders recreation grew to become the most-watched Christmas Day regular-season recreation ever with 29.2M viewers. The Eagles-Giants additionally took house 29M that day, whereas the 49ers-Ravens managed 27.1M.
The distinction maker tends to be Netflix’s international viewers, which helps the streamer tack on just a few million further viewers. Whereas that helped bridge the hole for Lions-Vikings, boosting it simply over these totals, it didn’t do a lot for Cowboys-Commanders, the place U.S. viewership was down quote considerably.
For Netflix, this was yr two of a three-year take care of the NFL to broadcast NFL soccer video games on Christmas Day. Below the deal, the streamer will get no less than one recreation annually. Christmas falls on a Friday relatively than a Thursday in 2026, so Prime Video is unlikely to host once more. Nevertheless, whether or not which means a recreation will default again to broadcast or discover a house on one other streamer stays to be seen.
