Exclusive: Christmas Day sets streaming record

• The only other day that captured that much streaming market share to date was Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, when viewership hit 50.4%.

By the numbers: In total, streaming generated 55.1 billion Christmas Day viewing minutes last year, shattering the previous Christmas Day record in 2024 by 8%.

Zoom in: A slew of historic NFL games, combined with Netflix's release of three new "Stranger Things" season five episodes, helped push streaming to new heights over the holiday.

• Netflix said its NFL Christmas Gameday broadcast of the Lions-Vikings match-up was the most-streamed NFL game in history, with an average of 27.5 million viewers in the U.S., per Nielsen figures.
• Its broadcast of the Cowboys-Commanders game also saw big numbers, averaging 19.9 million U.S. viewers.
• The "Stranger Things" release helped Netflix retain post-game viewers. From 3:30pm and 4pm ET, the streamer represented a whopping 25.3% of all TV viewership.

Of note: Nielsen has made improvements to its TV measurement technology that makes it easier for the company to capture viewership, especially for streaming, in-home and out-of-home at places like bars and restaurants.

Zoom out: Big Tech firms and streamers continue to take a bigger share of total TV time as they invest more in exclusive sports rights, original programming and specialized holiday content.

• Combined, Netflix and Amazon's Prime Video represented 22.5% of total television viewership on Christmas Day.