Beyonce's halftime show on Christmas 2024 pulled over 27 million US viewers — the peak of the most-streamed NFL day in history.

On December 25, 2024, Netflix's two NFL games became the most-streamed NFL games in U.S. history per Nielsen, with viewership peaking above 27 million during Beyoncé's halftime performance.

When Beyoncé took the field in Houston on Christmas Day 2024, more than 27 million people in the United States were watching her at once — the high-water mark of what Nielsen would go on to call its most-streamed television day ever. The halftime set came during the Baltimore Ravens–Houston Texans game, the first of a Netflix NFL doubleheader that rewrote the record book for pro football on a streaming platform.

The numbers behind the peak are just as striking. According to figures Netflix released and attributed to Nielsen, Ravens-Texans averaged 24.3 million U.S. viewers and the nightcap between the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers averaged 24.1 million. Both measurements combined Nielsen's Fast National Live and Same-Day figures — the Average Minute Audience, or AMA, which is the standard way TV audiences get sized. Netflix's own newsroom post, "Netflix NFL Christmas Gameday Reaches 65 Million US Viewers," laid out the claim plainly: these were the most-streamed NFL games in U.S. history.

How we know the record is real

The strength of this record is that it doesn't rest on Netflix's word alone. Nielsen, the measurement company whose numbers the whole television industry lives and dies by, published its own confirmation in 2025 under the headline "Christmas 2024 is Nielsen's most-streamed TV day ever." That's the independent referee agreeing with the player.

CNBC reported the same core figures — 24.3 million for Ravens-Texans, 24.1 million for Chiefs-Steelers, roughly 65 million total viewers across the day — sourced to Nielsen. The Hollywood Reporter covered it too, and its account is worth reading closely because it adds nuance. THR noted that Netflix later cited higher "Big Data + Panel" totals of 25.8 million and 27.2 million for the two games, a newer Nielsen methodology that folds in streaming-specific data. Whichever measurement you use, both games cleared the streaming record; the AMA figures are the more conservative and widely cited ones.

Why the Beyoncé peak matters

The 27-million peak belongs specifically to the Ravens-Texans broadcast, because that game contained the halftime show — quickly nicknamed the "Beyoncé Bowl." It was the live debut of songs from her album *Cowboy Carter*, staged in her hometown of Houston, and it pulled the game's audience up above its own average in a single spike. A halftime performance driving a live viewership surge is a familiar pattern from the Super Bowl; what was new here was watching it happen on a streaming service rather than a traditional network.

That distinction — streaming versus broadcast — is the seam still worth arguing over. The Hollywood Reporter's headline made the point directly: the Christmas games "Set Streaming Record but Trail 2023 Broadcast Numbers." The previous year's Christmas NFL games, aired the old-fashioned way over the airwaves and cable, drew larger audiences than Netflix's did in 2024. So the record is precise and true, but it's a record within a category: most-streamed, not most-watched.

Whether that gap closes is the open question. Netflix has already committed to more NFL Christmas games, and broadcast's advantage has been shrinking for years as more households cut cords. For now, the honest way to state it is the way Nielsen and Netflix both did: on December 25, 2024, more people streamed an NFL game than ever before in the country's history — and the moment the whole day peaked, it was because Beyoncé was singing.