Beyoncé brought more excitement than either of the games during Netflix’s NFL debut on Christmas Day.
She made her halftime appearance riding a white horse and thrilled the Houston crowd with a nearly 13-minute performance. During the show, she surprised fans by bringing out Shaboozey to perform “Sweet Honey Buckiin” and Post Malone to sing “Levii’s Jeans.”
The games on the field didn’t meet expectations, even though the NFL featured four of the top five teams in the AFC.
In the first game, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce took advantage of Pittsburgh’s defense in Kansas City’s 29-10 win.
The broadcast went smoothly and became the second-most popular live title on Netflix, according to NFL Media.
Lamar Jackson and the Ravens were leading 17-2 at halftime against C.J. Stroud and the Texans before Beyoncé stole the spotlight. Baltimore finished the game with a 31-2 win, with Jackson resting for most of the fourth quarter.
Mariah Carey started the football doubleheader with a pre-recorded performance of “All I Want for Christmas is You,” and then the two-time Super Bowl champion Chiefs defeated the Steelers to secure the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
There were no major streaming issues during the game, despite Netflix experiencing minor problems at the start of the pregame show. The broadcast began with about 10 seconds of silence because studio host Kay Adams’ microphone wasn’t on.
Beyoncé’s live performance at NRG Stadium was a big test for the streaming service, and it appeared to go perfectly.
Mahomes threw for 320 yards and three touchdowns, while Kelce caught eight passes for 84 yards and one touchdown as the Chiefs (15-1) earned a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. The Steelers (10-6) have now lost three straight and might have to settle for a wild-card spot.
Jackson threw two touchdown passes and ran for a score, while Derrick Henry rushed for 147 yards and one touchdown to help the Ravens (11-5) take first place in the AFC North, one game ahead of Pittsburgh.
Netflix signed a three-year contract in May to broadcast Christmas Day games. The NFL is expected to give the streaming service one of its biggest days since the site launched in 1998.
With Netflix’s 282.3 million subscribers in more than 190 countries, this was the first time an NFL game was available globally on one platform. The games were available in five languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German.
Netflix had some issues streaming the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight on Nov. 14, with 65 million peak concurrent streams. Almost 85,000 viewers reported problems with outages or streaming issues during the fight.
However, there were fewer complaints on Wednesday.
According to NFL Media, viewers from all 50 states tuned in within minutes of the pregame show starting, and viewers from nearly 200 countries watched the first game. Before the Ravens-Texans game began, Netflix reported surpassing its peak concurrent viewers for any Christmas in the past four years.
This was the NFL’s first Wednesday game since Dec. 2, 2020, when the Steelers and Ravens played due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The only other time the league played on a Wednesday since 1948 was in 2012 when the Giants and Cowboys met in the season opener.
