It’s a milestone which will stay unbeaten for fairly a while. With practically 70,000 attendees at Cowboys Stadium and over 108 million viewers tuning in stay globally, the Jake Paul–Mike Tyson occasion emerged as certainly one of 2024’s most groundbreaking successes.
Notably, it wasn’t broadcast on pay-per-view (PPV). The occasion’s overwhelming success may be attributed to an unprecedented deal between Paul’s promotions, Most Beneficial Promotions (MVP), and Netflix. The streaming large boasts nicely over 200 million subscribers throughout the globe. Thus, its attain ensured an unparalleled viewers because the occasion unfolded on November 15. Persevering with this pattern of streaming-first occasions, WWE joined forces with Netflix for the premiere of its weekly present, ‘Monday Night time RAW’. Nevertheless, stories counsel that the WWE present struggled to copy the success of the Paul-Tyson occasion.
WWE RAW: Failing to shut the hole?
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On-line leisure channel ‘The Bread Batch’ shared an intriguing comparability. A promotional poster featured viewership statistics for each Netflix occasions. WWE’s ‘Monday Night time RAW’ displayed 4.9 million international viewers, whereas the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson occasion boasted a staggering 125 million viewers.
“RAW’s Netflix debut had 4.9M watching globally compared to 125M watching Paul vs. Tyson,” learn the caption on the Instagram publish. That includes 4 fights, ‘Monday Night time RAW’ occurred on January 6 at Inglewood, California’s Intuit Dome.
Legends akin to ‘The Rock,’ ‘The Undertaker,’ and Hulk Hogan made their appearances on the occasion the place the principle battle occurred between CM Punk and Seth Rollins. ‘Tribal Fight‘ noticed Roman Reigns defeat Solo Sikoa. The Girls’s World Championship noticed Rhea Ripley drub Liv Morgan. Utilizing pinfall, Jey Uso secured a win over Drew McIntyre.
This episode of RAW marked a big shift in WWE’s technique. The promotion seems desperate to shift from conventional cable broadcasts to over-the-top (OTT) digital streaming platforms like Netflix. It additionally started an emotional chapter in WWE historical past with John Cena’s farewell tour.
Nevertheless, not everybody welcomed the comparability between the 2 Netflix occasions. One Instagram person aptly commented, “Evaluating a weekly episodic present to an enormous once-in-a-lifetime occasion?”
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Nonetheless a monumental achievement
Regardless of the criticism, WWE RAW’s debut on Netflix achieved some outstanding statistics. The January 6 episode was watched by 2.6 million viewers in the USA. Reportedly, it’s 116% increased than WWE RAW’s 2024 common US viewership of 1.2 million households. This marked the primary time RAW crossed the 4 million viewer threshold since January 2018. Likewise, it was the highest-watched episode since March 2015.
Alternatively, the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson occasion shattered data on this planet of fight sports activities. It broke the gate file for an MMA/boxing occasion held exterior Las Vegas, with common ticket costs hovering round $304 and whole stay gate income exceeding $18 million.
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Not all the pieces went easily, nevertheless. Netflix suffered a significant outage throughout the November 15 broadcast, resulting in widespread complaints. Regardless of this setback, the occasion exceeded all expectations and have become a monumental success each when it comes to viewership and enterprise affect.
What do you assume? Ought to extra occasions comply with within the footsteps of the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson present and go for streaming platforms to succeed in wider audiences?
