Last month Netflix tried something new. The platform known for great shows such as Stranger Things streamed a boxing match! Although very different than what Netflix normally does, the fight gave Netflix's app the biggest spike of downloads in more than four years.
Peacock has grown its user base by streaming sports, so this isn't a new approach. But Netflix's scale is bigger.
Last week, Netflix did it again. The platform streamed two Christmas Day NFL games for the first time.
Did it help downloads?
Absolutely!
According to Appfigures Intelligence, Netflix saw 713K downloads the day before Christmas, 960K downloads on Christmas day, and 934K downloads the next day for a total of 2.6M new downloads. That's more than twice the number of downloads it gets on average between Tuesday - Thursday.
The majority of the downloads came from the US followed by India and Brazil, where downloads from Google Play outpaced downloads from the App Store by a multiple of two.
This is Netflix's biggest spike of daily downloads in more than four years, only second to the Tyson vs. Paul fight in November, which our App Intelligence shows brought 2.7M new downloads in the day before, day of, and next day period.
The streaming race hasn't stopped. Instead, it has shifted away from the direct-to-streaming releases, augmenting original content with live sports. Peacock has been doing it for a while now and managed to capture more than 18M downloads this year, inching close to 100M total downloads.
I said it last month and I still firmly believe that we'll see more sporting events make their way into mainstream streaming apps in 2025.
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