LeBron James and the NBA will need to make space for the NFL on Christmas.
This isn’t an issue, as both leagues had successful performances on Wednesday.
Netflix set a new record for the most-streamed NFL games in U.S. history, while the NBA had its best Christmas viewership in five years, according to Nielsen.
The NFL and Nielsen reported that 65 million U.S. viewers watched at least one minute of one of the two NFL games.
The Baltimore Ravens’ 31-2 win over the Houston Texans averaged 24.3 million viewers, and Kansas City’s 29-10 victory over Pittsburgh averaged 24.1 million, based on early Nielsen data released on Thursday.
The NBA’s five-game schedule averaged about 5.25 million viewers per game across ABC, ESPN, and other platforms, according to the NBA and Nielsen.
“I love the NFL,” James said jokingly in his postgame interview on Wednesday night. “But Christmas is our day.”
However, the ratings from Wednesday show there’s space for both.
Although the NBA used to have Christmas Day to itself for many years, the NFL has made Christmas one of its key events, joining Kickoff Weekend and Thanksgiving.
Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice president of media, responded to James’ comments with humor, expressing excitement about the NFL’s successful first year of its three-year partnership with Netflix.
“The numbers speak for themselves, and LeBron can have his own view, and I’m sure more people will look at that because of this,” he said. “But, you know, we’re focused on the NFL and thrilled with the results this year with Christmas on Netflix, and we’re excited to keep building that over the next couple of years.”
Both NFL games exceeded last season’s 23 million viewers for the AFC wild-card game between the Miami Dolphins and the Chiefs on Peacock.
Viewership for the Ravens-Texans game peaked during the Beyoncé Bowl, with her 13-minute halftime performance drawing over 27 million viewers.
The viewer counts include Netflix, mobile streaming on NFL+, and those watching on CBS in cities like Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Baltimore, and Houston.
Final U.S. and global ratings will be available on Tuesday.
The NFL’s Christmas viewership was lower than last season but didn’t drop as much as usual when programming shifts from broadcast to streaming.
Last year, the NFL averaged 28.68 million viewers for three games, with the early game between the Las Vegas Raiders and Chiefs averaging 29.48 million viewers on CBS.
Once Netflix’s global data is added, both games this year are expected to surpass 30 million viewers.
The games were the second- and third-most-watched live events in Netflix history, only behind the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight in November, which averaged 60 million viewers worldwide and peaked at 65 million concurrent streams, including 38 million in the U.S.
Next year, at least two NFL games will be on Christmas, but since the holiday falls on a Thursday, it’s more likely there will be three games: two in the afternoon and one in prime time. The NFL has had three games on Thanksgiving since 2006.
One of Netflix’s biggest successes on Wednesday was the reduction in streaming complaints, with the main issue being that the stream didn’t immediately show live action if viewers tuned in after the game had already started.
Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, expressed gratitude for the NFL partnership, the on-air talent, and especially Beyoncé and Mariah Carey.
Beyoncé’s performance became the top trending topic worldwide on X (formerly Twitter), while the hashtag #NFLonNetflix trended globally, peaking second in Australia, third in the UK and Germany, fifth in Brazil and France, and sixth in the U.S.
The NBA also had a great day, reporting on Thursday that all five of its Christmas games saw viewership increases compared to last year.
The NBA’s viewership on Christmas saw an 84% increase compared to 2023. One reason for the rise is that all five games were broadcast on ABC, unlike two last year.
The Lakers’ 115-113 win over the Warriors, featuring Olympic teammates LeBron James and Stephen Curry, averaged 7.76 million viewers and peaked at 8.32 million viewers near the end of the game. This was the most-watched NBA regular season game in five years.
Wednesday’s viewership helped boost NBA viewership across ESPN platforms by 4% compared to last season. The league also set a new record with over 500 million video views on its social media platforms on Christmas.
For the NBA, these numbers are a positive sign amid concerns over declining viewership.
“Ratings are down a bit at the start of the season, but cable TV viewership is down significantly compared to last year,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this month.
“We’re almost at the point where more people watch programming on streaming services than on traditional TV, and that’s why our new TV deals, starting next year, will make every game available on streaming services.”
As part of these new deals, the NBA will increase the number of regular season games shown on TV from 15 to 75 starting next season.
ESPN and ABC will continue to air the NBA’s Christmas Day games.
