LeBron James said that “Christmas belonged to the NBA” but the ratings said otherwise.
Netflix released its Christmas streaming viewership numbers on Thursday, saying that the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans matchups drew 65 million viewers across the United States.
The 1:00 p.m. ET game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers did a 24.31 million average minute audience (AMA), which made it the most-streamed NFL game of all-time. However, their record lasted only a few hours before the 4:30 p.m. ET game between the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans reached a 24.3 million (AMA).
The NBA had respectable numbers for their own four-game slate, but none were able to cross eight million viewers on average.
With ratings like that, there’s no way the NFL is going to be slowing down it’s goal of playing games on Christmas. The NFL on Netflix won’t be a one-year deal, either as the streaming giant will broadcast at least one NFL game on Christmas in both the 2025 and 2026 seasons as well.
