The boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul played in front of a massive international audience.
This was expected to be a huge event, with many tuning in to see the most famous boxer alive today – Tyson, the long-retired former heavyweight champion – take on Paul, a lightning rod of a social media content creator who has embarked on a pro boxing career against a dubious slate of opponents over the past five years.
“Sixty million households around the world tuned in live to watch Paul vs. Tyson!” Netflix announced Saturday afternoon. “The boxing mega-event dominated social media, shattered records and even had our buffering systems on the ropes.”
The show peaked at 65 million households watching simultaneously, according to a press release from the event’s promoters.
That number of households doesn’t estimate the actual audience size, which would reasonably include more than one person per television or computer screen.
Netflix also didn’t break down the audience by country. However, it is safe to assume that Tyson vs. Paul was the most-watched boxing match in the United States in nearly 29 years, dating back to December 1995 for Tyson’s second fight after he was released from prison, following his serving three years for a rape conviction. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Fox broadcast featuring Tyson vs. Buster Mathis Jr. in the main event had more than 43 million people watching at least part of the show.
Many of those eyes who tuned in for Tyson vs. Paul – and who stuck around amid the technological issues Netflix had with its live stream – watched the co-feature beforehand featuring the entertaining rematch between undisputed junior welterweight champion Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.
“Nearly 50 million households globally tuned in live for the co-main event of Serrano vs. Taylor,” Netflix posted. “The bout is likely to be the most-watched professional women’s sporting event in U.S. history.”
The show took place at AT&T Stadium outside of Dallas. The event’s promoters announced an attendance of 72,300, though many announced attendances wind up differing from the actual number of tickets sold.
That would put the show just shy of the record for the stadium, which occurred for the 2021 fight between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Billy Joe Saunders. The announced attendance for Canelo vs. Saunders was 73,216, which reportedly included people working the event.
Canelo vs. Saunders “generated a live gate of $9,002,920 from a record 66,065 tickets sold. Another 989 complimentary tickets were issued for a total fan attendance of 67,054,” boxing writer Jake Donovan reported at the time.
The promoters of Tyson vs. Paul claimed their box office gate was more than $18 million, the largest ever in Texas, according to the Dallas Morning-News.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2 and @UnitedBoxingPod. He is the co-host of the United Boxing Podcast. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
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