In June, a relatively unknown boxer named Andy Ruiz Jr. shocked the world and took down the then undefeated, unified WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
Ruiz wasn't even supposed to face Joshua, but after Jarrell Miller failed three drug tests, the heavyweight champ was in need of someone to fight. Ruiz stepped up to the challenge, and gave Joshua more than he expected. The historical upset led to one of the most anticipated fights of the decade, Ruiz vs. Joshua 2 in December.
Millions of people around the globe tuned into the event on the streaming platform DAZN, and it ended up as the company's most-watched stream of 2019. Ruiz was unable to retain his titles as Joshua won via unanimous decision, but the anticipation was clear.
Ruiz vs. Joshua 2 wasn't the only fight that drew in millions of viewers. In a press release, DAZN listed four fights from 2019 that ranked among its top 10 most-viewed events.
The top 10 events streamed on DAZN in 2019
- Ruiz vs. Joshua 2 (Dec. 7)
- UEFA Champions League: Tottenham vs. Liverpool (June 1)
- UEFA Champions League: Liverpool vs. Barcelona (May 7)
- Canelo vs. Kovalev (Nov. 2)
- KSI vs. Logan Paul 2 (Nov. 9)
- UEFA Champions League: Tottenham vs. Bayern Munich (Oct. 1)
- Serie A: Milan vs. Internazionale (Sept. 21)
- UEFA Champions League: Ajax vs. Tottenham (May 8)
- UEFA Champions League: Barcelona vs. Liverpool (May 1)
- Canelo vs. Jacobs (May 4)
Both of Canelo Alvarez's fights from 2019 also made the list as the four-division world champion defeated Daniel Jacobs and Sergey Kovalev. YouTubers KSI and Logan Paul also proved they can pull in an audience, placing fifth with their highly anticipated rematch in November.
Overall, DAZN saw the most viewership across the globe in soccer as the sport accounted for 314.6 million hours viewed. Placing second was baseball (38.1 million hours), third was motorsport (37.9 million hours), fourth was American football (37.2 million hours) and boxing (22.6 million hours) was fifth.
With so many high-profile events, DAZN was able to grow dramatically in 2019 with 507 million hours streamed. This was a 98 percent increase from the 256 million hours streamed in 2018. There were 107 events on DAZN that surpassed over 1 million streams in 2019.
