Record breaking 60 million tuned in to glitchy Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight

In what Netflix calls a record-breaking night, 60 million households watched the historic match between YouTuber Jake Paul and legendary boxer Mike Tyson.

The fight between Paul and Tyson was one of the most highly anticipated events of the year, as the legendary boxer went up against the content creator turned fighter.

The event took place on November 15th, 2024, with over 70,000 physical attendees and tens of millions of virtual spectators.

Netflix released a statement saying that 60 million households watched the Paul vs. Tyson main event live, which then peaked at 65 million simultaneous streams.

The streaming giant also said that it would reveal additional information about the viewership early this week as this data is based on its overnight data.

While this is said to be a historic feat for Netflix, this result falls flat in comparison to other titles like Wednesday (Season 1), which received over 250 million views.

According to Netflix’s statistics, Stranger Things (4) received 140 million views, and the dramatic retelling of Jeffery Dahmer’s reign of terror accumulated 115 million views, making these three titles the most-watched series as of November 10th, 2024.

However, the Paul vs.Tyson fight is shaping up to be the most-watched boxing match in history. The fight seems to have surpassed the infamous 1974 ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ match between legends Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, which was watched by 60,000 attendees and an estimated 50 million at-home viewers.

Despite this victory, Netflix struggled as many tired and disgruntled virtual viewers reported tuning into a glitchy stream.

According to the BBC, viewers reported buffering issues on the Netflix website, and others said they couldn’t access the stream.

One X user said that the fight was unwatchable, while another netizen said that they were disconnected from Netflix just before the main event.