According to a report from Bloomberg, the bout between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul peaked at over 65 million viewers globally, a staggeringly high number that in part explains the issues with their livestreaming service.
Though this fight was delayed multiple times, with one of those delays being a result of Mike Tyson’s life being at risk, people were clearly willing to wait to see their showdown.
Bloomberg reported that they got their hands on an internal memo from Netflix boasting about the viewership, claiming it topped out at 65 million. Netflix refused to confirm or deny this number.
Those are some Superbowl-level numbers, though they fall far shy of the reported 1.5 billion peak viewers on the 2022 World Cup according to FIFA. Still, it’s nothing to scoff at, unlike the fight itself.
Many of those who viewed the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul fight were critical of it, being disappointed that Iron Mike didn’t show up in the way many expected him to. After the first few rounds, he didn’t put up much of a fight as Jake Paul swept their bout.
Following his win, Mike Tyson teased that he may be willing to step back into the ring against Logan Paul, to which the Paul brother replied, “Motherf**ker, I’ll kill you Mike.”
Despite this, Jake claimed that Tyson is an “inspiration” following their bout and holds him in high regard despite having bested him in the ring. It remains to be seen if Iron Mike will ever step into the ring again.
These are events that were seen live only by a lucky few, with Netflix having issues keeping up with the livestream due to the sheer volume of people trying to tune in all at once. This does, however, make sense considering that 65 million live viewers would have put Netflix’s servers under a massive load.