Friday night’s Mike Tyson-Jake Paul showdown packed a major punch across the world.
Streaming giant Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households tuned in live to watch YouTuber-turned-prizefighter Paul, 27, cruise to a unanimous decision over Tyson, the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
In addition, Netflix said 50 million households globally watched the co-main event, which saw Katie Taylor retain her undisputed women’s lightweight championship with a controversial unanimous decision over Amanda Serrano. That number, according to Netflix, likely would make the fight the most-watched professional women’s sporting event in United States history.
By comparison, the Kansas City Chiefs‘ 25-22 overtime victory versus the San Francisco 49ers in last season’s Super Bowl averaged 123.7 million viewers across television and streaming platforms, making it the most-watched program in television history.
Netflix has 280 million subscribers worldwide.
The card marked the company’s first foray into streaming a live sports event, and it wasn’t seamless.
According to the website Down Detector, nearly 85,000 viewers logged problems with outages or streaming leading up to the fight, resulting in many…
