Netflix broke a record with one of its Christmas Day NFL games this year. 27.5 million viewers tuned in for the livestream of the Minnesota Vikings-Detroit Lions game according to Nielsen, marking 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, though the game’s most-watched moment reached more than 30 million viewers. When isolating the halftime show, “Snoop’s Holiday Halftime Party,” viewership averaged at 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 in between 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 last year averaged 24.3 million and 24.1 million viewers, fewer 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 has now been the distributor of all three of the all-time most-streamed NFL games in the U.S.
While the above data from Nielsen refers to viewership in the U.S. alone, Netflix’s NFL games were available across the globe. The streamer reports that viewers from over 200 countries and territories tuned in to at least one of the 2025 games, with the Lions-Vikings game hitting an average minute audience of 30.5 million viewers worldwide and the Cowboys-Commanders game reaching 22.4 million.
The NFL games added to an already strong viewership day for Netflix, which also debuted Volume 2 of the fifth and final season of “Stranger Things” on Christmas Day. While exact an exact Christmas Day total wasn’t shared, the season was Netflix’s No. 1 most-watched title worldwide on Dec. 25 and achieved 34.5 million views throughout the week of Dec. 22-28.
Besides the games themselves, the NFL telecasts featured an extensive lineup 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 led by Sugarhill Gang.
Both games were produced by CBS Sports, with NFL Media producing the pre- and post-game as well as studio halftime programming. EverWonder Studio executive produced Netflix’s telecast.
