It's easy math: Beyoncé + football = lots and lots of viewers. Netflix screwed up some things about their first live football broadcast—the minor glitches and audio delays were so expected that even Queen Bey winked at them in a promo video for her performance—but the streamer got that one thing absolutely right. According to the platform, over 65 million people tuned in to watch their Christmas gameday special, with an average of 24.3 million viewers for the Ravens-Texans game and 24.1 million for the Chiefs-Steelers game earlier in the afternoon. That makes both games the most streamed in US history, according to Nielsen.
But while there were a lot of eyeballs on the players, there were—naturally—even more on Beyoncé. According to Netflix, viewership for the Ravens-Texans game peaked during her halftime show, with over 27 million viewers tuning in to watch the Queen's first-ever live performance in support of Cowboy Carter (including a sweet cameo from her daughter, Blue Ivy). With all the Texan imagery in the album, one might wonder if it gave one of those teams a bit of an unfair advantage, but apparently not. The Baltimore Ravens declared "This ain't Texas" with a conclusive 31-2 victory. (The first game went to the Chiefs 29-10.)
These numbers are great news for Netflix, the NFL, and CBS Sports, which produced the games. As the first of a three season deal between the streamer and the NFL to air future Christmas games, it's an auspicious start. The question now is whether or not they can replicate this success next year, potentially without a name as big as Beyoncé (and perhaps minus a few technical difficulties too).
