Netflix's Australia 49ers-Rams game averages 18.5M U.S. viewers
Netflix's Week 1 49ers-Rams game broadcast from Melbourne, Australia on September 12 averaged 18.5 million U.S. viewers and 3.2 million international viewers, matching YouTube's 2025 Brazil game domestic audience. The game aired Thursday amid competing US Open tennis, MLB, and college football programming.
Netflix's Week 1 49ers-Rams game from Melbourne, Australia on September 12 averaged 18.5 million U.S. viewers and 3.2 million international viewers, according to Front Office Sports. The international audience watched from more than 200 countries and territories.
The 18.5 million domestic figure matches the viewership YouTube's Chiefs-Chargers game drew from Brazil in Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season. Netflix's international total of 3.2 million more than doubled YouTube's 1.2 million international viewers from the Brazil broadcast, marking a significant expansion of the league's streaming reach outside the U.S.
Netflix used standard Nielsen audience measurement, whereas YouTube employed custom, revised viewership methodology, making direct technical comparison imperfect. The Thursday-night slot on Netflix, a subscription platform, also differs from YouTube's Friday-morning distribution model in Brazil, which was free to viewers.
Competition for Thursday viewership included women's semifinals in the U.S. Open tennis tournament, MLB pennant-race baseball, and a college football game involving No. 5 Miami, per the viewership data. The broader Week 1 picture showed softness: the NBC Patriots-Seahawks game on Wednesday recorded an 11% viewership drop compared to prior seasons.
San Francisco won the contest in dominant fashion. Netflix's Christmas Day doubleheader last year averaged 23.7 million viewers in the U.S., setting a high water mark for the platform's NFL coverage. Netflix has a newly expanded five-game league package this season, with its next broadcast the league's first-ever Thanksgiving Eve game between the Rams and Packers, followed by another Christmas doubleheader and a Week 18 game with playoff implications.
Netflix's international broadcast delivered 3.2 million viewers across more than 200 countries and territories, more than 2.5 times YouTube's 1.2 million international viewers from its 2025 Brazil game.
Netflix's first international regular-season game matched YouTube's prior domestic benchmark while tripling its international reach, but it remains unclear whether the 18.5 million figure represents a stable floor or whether a closer contest and less fragmented Thursday competition would have enlarged the audience. The Thanksgiving Eve and Week 18 broadcasts will test whether Netflix can sustain or grow these numbers as the season deepens.
Sports, checked.
Sources
Single-source report. As published, only frontofficesports.com had reported this development. No independent outlet had corroborated it.
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