Netflix says it smashed records with the Mike Tyson fight against YouTuber Jake Paul, although the platform was plagued with buffering issues throughout the night. That brag sparked a new round of blistering comments about the streaming problems on fight night.
According to a statement sent out by Netflix’s PR team, “60 million households tuned in live for Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson with nearly 50 million for Amanda Serrano vs. Katie Taylor 2 during the Netflix and Most Valuable promotions mega-event.”
“It was a record-breaking night for Netflix,” the streaming platform wrote.
“Ur ‘buffering systems’ were more of a fight than the actual fight,” a fan responded in the Netflix comment thread.
What Netflix left out though was that the production was plagued with problems, as many thousands of viewers reported via Down Detector and social media that they were periodically or completely unable to watch the main event because the streaming video kept glitching, buffering or delivering error messages.
Millions of people instead went over to X where they watched a live video of former NFL player Antonio Brown streaming the board. Users took to Netflix’s comment thread on X to continue registering complaints on Netflix’s post about the 60 million households tuning in.
“You mean that 60 million households saw a spinning wheel and were falsely told by your company that it was their own fault because they supposedly had a bad internet connection. What a disgrace,” another person wrote.
“Sadly, many of us COULD NOT watch it because of buffering and BS. You should be comping paying customers,” a fan wrote.
Other fans shared memes mocking Netflix.“‘Watching’ is doing some heavy lifting there. We watched it on x,” another user wrote in the comment thread.
Netflix Says That More Than 6,000 Bars & Restaurants Also Streamed the Event
Getty (L-R) Jake Paul and Mike Tyson fight during LIVE On Netflix: Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson.
According to Netflix, the peak audience hit “65 million concurrent streams.”
“The bout is likely to be the most watched professional women’s sporting event in US history,” Netflix wrote of the Serrano-Taylor fight.
In addition, wrote Netflix, the event was streamed to more than 6,000 bars and restaurants throughout the United States, “setting the record for commercial distribution of a combat sports event in the company’s 50+ year history.”
Netflix noted that the fight trended on social media. “#PaulTyson was the No. 1 trending topic worldwide on X on Friday with #Serrano at No. 2 in the US, Brazil, Spain, and Canada. The fight dominated social conversation, accounting for 11 of the Top 11 trending topics in the US,” they wrote.
Netflix also noted that many celebrities attended, from boxer Evander Holyfield to NBA great Shaquille O’Neal to actors like Ralph Macchio and Charlize Theron.
The Buffering Problems Skyrocketed as the Main Event Approached
NetflixNetflix page for the Paul-Tyson fight.
The buffering issues, though, wrecked the viewing experience – or at least marred it – for many viewers, judging from reports on Down Detector and social media while it was happening.
The complaints started around 7 p.m. on fight night and then soared around 9 p.m., with tens of thousands of reports, according to Down Detector. Some viewers, including this author, received a “pardon the interruption” error message throughout the night.
“Nice job @netflix the circle of infinite buffering. I’m sure it’ll just get better with more viewers, right? 😂” wrote one user on X.
“Is this a brag? Is 60 million really that great worldwide? Also, how many of those 60 million tuned out after the buffering issues? The one thing this proved, is Netflix should not be hosting live sporting events on its current platform capabilities,” another person wrote on Netflix’s comment thread on X.
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