27.5 million viewers by Christmas 2025
Netflix broke a record this year with one of its NFL games on Christmas Day. According to Nielsen, 27.5 million viewers tuned in to the livestream of the Minnesota Vikings-Detroit Lions game, which is the most streamed NFL game in U.S. history.
That number represents the average number of viewers tuned in at any given moment of the livestream, although the game’s most-watched moment reached more than 30 million viewers. When the halftime show, “Snoop’s Holiday Halftime Party”, was isolated, viewership averaged 29 million.
Netflix also streamed the Dallas Cowboys-Washington Commanders game on Christmas Day, reaching an average audience of 19.9 million viewers. Another Christmas NFL game was streamed by Amazon Prime Video and ranked among Netflix’s streams: The Denver Broncos-Kansas City Chiefs livestream averaged 21.1 million viewers and became Amazon’s most-watched Thursday Night Football regular-season game ever.
Netflix’s first-ever Christmas games averaged 24.3 million and 24.1 million viewers last year, less than this year’s Lions-Vikings game but more than the Cowboys-Commanders game. Between last year’s games and this year’s Lions-Vikings game, Netflix is now the distributor of all three of the most streamed NFL games of all time in the US.
While the above Nielsen data only covers US viewership, Netflix’s NFL games were available around the world. The streamer reports that viewers from more than 200 countries and territories tuned in to at least one of the 2025 games, with the Lions-Vikings game reaching an average minute audience of 30.5 million viewers worldwide and the Cowboys-Commanders game reaching 22.4 million viewers.
The NFL games added to an already strong viewing day for Netflix, where Part 2 of the fifth and final season of “Stranger Things” also debuted on Christmas Day. While the exact Christmas Day total wasn’t shared, the season was Netflix’s most-watched title worldwide on December 25 and was viewed 34.5 million times during the week of December 22-28.
In addition to the games themselves, the NFL broadcasts featured a wide range of entertainment, including some Netflix talent: Snoop Dogg brought out the singers behind Huntr/x, the fictional girl group from the animated film “KPop Demon Hunters.” Snoop was also joined by Lainey Wilson, and Martha Stewart introduced the show with a Snoop-themed parody of “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” For the Cowboys-Commanders game, the halftime show was headlined by Sugarhill Gang.
Both games were produced by CBS Sports, with NFL Media producing the pre- and post-game, as well as the studio halftime programming. EverWonder Studio director produced the Netflix broadcast.
