Netflix’s Exclusive NFL Game from Australia, Shows How Frusterating The Fan Experience Really Is

The Hilton Hotel I am at has eight TVs in the bar and lobby, but none are showing tonight’s exclusive Netflix NFL game taking place in Australia. As expected, some hotel guests aren’t happy. There is nothing “convenient” about NFL games streaming exclusively across 4-6 different platforms each year, especially when you’re trying to watch them in public places.

I travel with a Fire TV Stick, so I’m testing the game in my hotel room on wifi, where I’m getting 78 Mbps down, and the stream looks good for 1080p (not HDR), but the audio is off. 𝗧𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 mix of levels. I see isolated reports from users across social platforms complaining about various QoE and audio issues. Isolated incidents are to be expected when many are watching, and Netflix has the rights to stream this game globally in over 200 countries.

While many reference the viewership numbers below from Netflix’s previous NFL games, very few understand that Netflix doesn’t break out viewership numbers exclusive to its platform. The AMA viewership figures from previous years were based on Fast National Live + Same Day data from Nielsen, which includes out-of-home viewing, local market viewing on broadcast stations, and mobile and web data from Netflix, plus NFL+ mobile viewing from the NFL.

Nertflix previously called the 2025 Lions/Vikings game the “most streamed NFL game in history,” but we don’t know what percentage of viewership came via streaming, and Netflix’s 2024 Christmas games had higher AMA viewership. It’s unclear how Netflix is defining “most streamed.”

• 2025 Christmas: Detroit Lions vs. Minnesota Vikings, averaged 27.5 million U.S. viewers
• 2025 Christmas: Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Commanders, averaged 19.9 million U.S. viewers
• 2024 Christmas: Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans, averaged 24.3 million viewers in the U.S. and 31.3 million globally
• 2024 Christmas: Kansas City Chiefs vs. Pittsburgh Steelers averaged 24.1 million viewers

None of Netflix’s previous NFL games would be among the top 10 largest streaming events globally, based on AMA viewership or concurrent streams. See that list here: https://lnkd.in/e_a3yExs. However, viewership methodology changes yearly, and it’s now impossible to compare viewership across NFL games for the past few years.

In fact, NBC Sports has already altered how it measures and reports its NFL viewership for the 2026/2027 season. The company previously reported its NFL viewership using its own Total Audience Delivery figures, combining Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel measurement with digital data from Adobe Analytics. This year, it switched to Nielsen’s established methodology, with Adobe Analytics and additional Nielsen auditing.

Across the industry, viewership measurement is a mess, and almost nothing is comparable anymore because methodologies and definitions vary so much.