Yahoo live stream of Bills-Jaguars game attracts 33.6 million total views

If you stream it, they will come.

Yahoo and the NFL announced on Monday that Sunday's exclusive live stream of the Bills-Jaguars game from London attracted a huge global audience: 15.2 million unique viewers and 33.6 million total views.

Those viewers streamed more than 460 million total minutes of the game with more than 33 percent of the streams being used by international users across 185 countries worldwide. It was the first time that international viewers were able to access a NFL game without cable or satellite.

In comparison, 1.8 million unique users tuned into the WatchESPN app for the 2014 World Cup final between Germany and Argentina, though that game was also broadcast over the air.

Sunday's audience was almost twice the size of the average audience (7.9 million) that TBS attracted for last week's NLCS between the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets.

Despite the immense size of the audience, Yahoo provided a great technical experience delivering the game. The stream reached HD levels, the average rebuffering ratio was nearly 1 percent and the game was broadcast at 60 frames per second. Average Internet video is usually distributed at 30 frames per second.

Viewers were able to watch the game, a thrilling 34-31 Jaguars victory, in a variety of ways including smartphones, tablets, laptops and smart television sets. The live stream garnered positive reviews from Sports Illustrated, Forbes and ESPN.

“It’s been a great opportunity to partner with the NFL and deliver a truly exceptional global live streaming experience for our users,” said Adam Cahan, Yahoo’s SVP of Product and Engineering, in a statement. “We’re seeing a dramatic shift in the industry as audiences’ primary video watching moves away from TV. We were thrilled to join the NFL in setting a new standard for sports programming for our users and advertisers.”

The NFL was equally as pleased with the experiment.

"We are incredibly excited by the fact we took a game that would have been viewed by a relatively limited television audience in the United States and by distributing it digitally were able to attract a global audience of over 15 million viewers," NFL senior vice president Hans Schroeder said.