In Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul, it’s Netflix that went down
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Nearly 100,000 Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) users reported issues during the historic boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul on Friday, with many complaining about connection problems, frozen screens and the livestream failing to load.
“Over 120 million on Netflix,” Paul claimed after beating the 58-year-old Tyson. “We crashed the site. The biggest U.S. boxing game.”
The keyword #NetflixCrash was trending as users took to social media platform X with their complaints. Around 100,000 users reported issues on the Downdetector website, with video streaming and server connection being the highest reported issues.
The match hosted at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington also failed to live up to the hype. The judges unanimously awarded the win to Paul after eight rounds without a knockout.
Paul will reportedly get $40 million for the 16-minute match, with Iron Mike making around half of that.
The match between the former heavyweight champion and the YouTuber-turned-boxer was available to Netflix’s (NFLX) over 280 million subscribers for no additional fee, a drastic change for consumers from paying a premium on a service like HBO (T).
The company’s biggest livestreaming event is indicative of its wider live programming ambitions and streamers’ growing interest in sports.
Netflix (NFLX) has previously hosted golf and tennis events, and the documentary series “Formula 1: Drive to Survive.” Amazon (AMZN) acquired exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football in 2021 and Apple (AAPL) signed deals with Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball in 2022.
Asked about future opponents, Tyson suggested Jake’s brother, Logan, another YouTube star. He did not say that he was done fighting.