When it came time for yuletide viewing of entertainment, Americans went to over-the-top streaming platforms more than ever. According to Nielsen, Christmas Day 2024 was the most-streamed day of television in the U.S. in its history of audience measurement.
The findings from Nielsen come as December 2024 saw one of the biggest changes in the TV ecosystem: Netflix’s exclusive live streaming of two Christmas Day NFL games.
While the games delivered record viewing for the streaming service, they also helped set another, broader record: the most streaming ever recorded in a single day, and the only streaming day in Nielsen’s audience measurement history to exceed 50 billion viewing minutes (51,218,510,400 to be exact).
Streaming represented half of total TV consumption on Christmas Day (49.5%). The second most-streamed day in history fell on January 11, 2025, which also coincided with Prime Video streaming an NFL Wild Card round game.
While NFL led the way, multiple streaming services saw success on Christmas, with Prime Video, Hulu, MAX, Disney+, Peacock and Paramount+ all placing titles in the Top 15 for the day of December 25.
“This is a Christmas story of how all streamers are finding success balancing new and evergreen programming on streaming,” said Brian Fuhrer, SVP of Product Strategy at Nielsen. “While live football was the highest profile and most-viewed, the diverse slate of original and classic shows and movies really resonated with audiences.”
