In addition to the poor sports performance offered by Mike Tyson and Jake Paul in the ring set up at the Dallas Cowboys stadium in Texas, United States, and around the world, millions of fans suffered from technical issues with the Netflix platform: some reported that the event was not loading, while others experienced frozen images.
The criticisms became a trend on social media Friday night with the hashtag #NetflixCrash.
Netflix has broadcasted other live events, such as the "Roast of Tom Brady", but this was their first live sports event, an area that the streaming company wants to enter considering that it has become a differentiator from other platforms such as Amazon's Prime Video and NBC's Peacock. Additionally, the launch of Venu Sports is imminent, where they will showcase their ESPN, FOX, and TNT Sports events.
How many people watched the fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul?
According to Jake Paul, around 120 million viewers watched the fight at some point, although he clarified that it will not be until Tuesday when his company Most Valuable Promotions releases the official numbers.
For reference, 185 million people watched the last Super Bowl around the world (123 million in the United States and 64 million in the rest of the countries), and it is estimated that the last World Cup final in 2022 was watched by 1.5 billion viewers globally.
Paul will receive 40 million dollars and $20 million will go to Tyson.
What are the upcoming sports events on Netflix?
According to information from the New York Times, Downdetector, which tracks user reports of internet outages, received over 500,000 complaints from people who had trouble watching the Tyson vs. Paul fight. The issues were detected throughout the fight program and not just during the main event.
So far, Netflix has not provided explanations for the issues with the transmission.
Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports and a social media celebrity, ironically posted on social media X "these fights are spectacular" and an image that said "loading".
The NFL should be on high alert, as in a controversial move, this season it sold Netflix the rights to stream the two games scheduled for Christmas: Steelers vs Chiefs (1 pm EST) and Texans vs Ravens (4.30 pm EST).
Last year, NFL games broadcasted on Christmas averaged 30 million viewers each.
Netflix has just over a month to fix the issues highlighted in the fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul in order to avoid another embarrassing incident.