Jake Paul’s win over Mike Tyson is seen by 65 million households on Netflix despite technical issues

Jake Paul’s uninspiring victory over a 58-year-old Mike Tyson certainly had its desired effect with viewers, according to audience figures shared by Most Valuable Promotions after Friday’s fight card on Netflix.

Although more data is still expected to be released later this week, the event is believed to be a record night for Netflix. An average of 60 million households watch the main event live, with as many as 65 million watching at one time, according to MVP. 

Additionally, Katie Taylor’s controversial win over Amanda Serrano had nearly 50 million households in its audience, MVP revealed.

The viewership numbers are even more impressive considering the technical issues that plagued Friday’s livestream. 

The outage-tracking website, Downdetector.com, revealed outages of roughly six hours for some viewers in the US during Friday’s bout. The issue peaked with more than 90,000 reporting problems to Netflix, according to Downdetector.

Fans on both sides of the Atlantic faced poor image quality, prolonged buffering and spotty audio throughout Friday’s undercard and main event. Meanwhile, hundreds online complained of error messages, while ‘#unwatchable’ began trending on X. 

‘Netflix is scamming everyone into watching a fight they have no idea how to support technically,’ one critic wrote on X. 

‘Well, look at the bright side,’ one person joked. ‘Nothing like Netflix bringing the country back together after a divisive election. Seems we’re all on the same side tonight.’

The frustrations extended beyond the livestream. 

There were also problems for those on the broadcast as well. Kate Scott, who provided hosting duties, was overheard asking the producers ‘where are we’ as those on the desk struggled to hear each other. 

And it wasn’t just Scott having issues. Tyson’s former rivals Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield were also struggling to hear each other. 

Fans were not impressed with Netflix’s performance during Friday’s fight in Texas 

Many viewers were confronted with an error message during Friday’s fight on Netflix 

A reported 70,000 seats have been sold for the fight at AT&T Stadium, which holds 80,000

Of course, these issues had zero impact on the gate, which was another record for MVP.  

Earlier in the night, promoters revealed Tyson-Paul generated more than $17.8 million at the gate to become boxing’s biggest box-office success in the United States outside of Las Vegas.

What’s more, Tyson-Paul nearly doubled the previous record in Texas, when Mexico’s Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez defeated Britain’s Billy Joe Saunders at the same venue, AT&T Stadium, in 2021.

And outside of a 2016 UFC bout between Conor McGregor and Eddie Alvarez in New York, Friday’s fight card has registered the highest gate of any US combat sporting event outside of Las Vegas.

MVP, which is co-owned by Paul, revealed there were 70,000 attendees at the home of the Dallas Cowboys on Friday. In total, the venue has a capacity of 80,000.