Key Points
- Netflix said its Christmas Day Lions–Vikings game became the most-streamed NFL game in U.S. history.
- The match-up averaged 27.5 million viewers and peaked at 30 million, according to Nielsen data cited by Netflix.
- The games underscore Netflix’s growing role as a streaming partner for marquee live sports events.
A Christmas Day match-up between the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings now holds the designation as the most-streamed National Football League (NFL) game in American history, according to a press release issued by Netflix on Wednesday.
The game peaked with 30 million viewers and attracted an average audience of 27.5 million viewers, Netflix said, citing data from Nielsen. The match-up was the second of two games offered on Christmas; an earlier game between the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Commanders averaged just under 20 million viewers, Netflix said.
Rapper Snoop Dogg’s halftime performance at the Lions-Vikings game averaged 29 million viewers in the U.S., Netflix said. The special was released as its own 15-minute program on Netflix immediately after the live event. It wasn’t clear if the special was included in the audience metric.
Globally, Netflix said at least one customer in more than 200 countries and territories watched at least one of the games offered on Christmas. The Cowboys-Commanders game attracted an average global audience of 22.4 million viewers, while the Lions-Vikings game attracted 30.5 million viewers.
The international viewership metrics shared by Nielsen strongly implied that most of the streamer’s viewership was in the U.S., where football is the dominant sport on live television. The global audience was largely unchanged from last year’s Christmas Day games offered on Netflix.
Netflix reached an agreement with the NFL in 2024 to offer two Christmas Day games that year and at least one game during the 2025 and 2026 seasons. The deal was valued at $150 million per season, according to trade reports.
Earlier this year, the NFL said Netflix would play host to two Christmas Day games, with Amazon’s Prime Video also streaming a game in prime-time. Prime Video’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos on Christmas attracted an average audience of just over 21 million viewers.
