Netflix looked for the silver lining in the technically flawed live stream of the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight on Friday.
The Los Gatos, Calif.-based streaming giant said 60 million households watched the bout between Paul, a fighter who has established his fame through YouTube, and Tyson, the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion. The figure is more than 20% of its 283 million subscribers worldwide.
Paul, 27, won a unanimous decision in the eight-round fight at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. But the fight was far from a pugilistic masterpiece.
Tyson came out aggressively in the first two rounds but was nearly immobile through the second half. By the end of the fight, Paul appeared to be holding back his attacks.
Nearly 50 million households also watched the co-main event where women’s lightweight champion Katie Taylor won a decision over Amanda Serrano. Netflix said the bout is likely to be the most-watched professional women’s sporting event in U.S. history.
Despite the huge audiences, Netflix’s first ever sanctioned boxing event was a less than ideal viewing experience as consumers went to social media to complain about losing the feed and buffering.
“I would pay $89.99 to not have to watch this on Netflix,” Femi Abebefe, a host on the BetQL radio network, wrote on X. “The buffering is so amateur, my goodness.”
Downdetector, which tracks internet outages, received thousands of reports on Friday that people were having problems streaming Netflix.
After the fight, Netflix was even trolled by the X account for Comcast’s streaming service Peacock with a post that read: “So how was everyone’s night? :)” Peacock has successfully live-streamed NFL games and the Olympics.
A Netflix representative had no comment on the technical issues.
Netflix has another major live streaming event scheduled on Christmas when the streamer plans to carry two NFL games.
Netflix is moving into live events that can capture mass audiences as a means to attract advertisers. The company’s ad-supported tier is seen as a route to increase revenue as subscriber growth slows.
