Skyscraper Live was a hit.
We know how many people watched Alex Honnold's historic climb on Netflix, and it's a lot originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Netflix delivered a strong showing with Skyscraper Live, its live broadcast featuring Alex Honnold scaling Taipei 101.
While it's not earth-shattering, the late Saturday night affair of Honnold’s ropeless ascent of the 1,667-foot, 101-story skyscraper in Taiwan drew 6.2 million live viewers, making it Netflix’s third-most-watched television program for the week of Jan. 19, according to Awful Announcing.
Skyscraper Live finished behind His & Hers (17.2 million viewers) and Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials (8.7 million) on the platform’s weekly rankings.
A hit as Netflix Sports continues to grow. The climb marked another milestone for Honnold, who spent months preparing for the unique challenge posed by Taipei 101’s pagoda-style architecture.
The structure’s repeated overhangs and steep, unforgiving surfaces offered little room for error. It was a stark contrast to natural rock faces. Buildings, Honnold has said, can be even more demanding than cliffs because there is no variability or safe margin.
Honnold rose to global prominence in 2017 with his free solo ascent of Yosemite’s El Capitan, a 3,000-foot vertical climb completed without ropes. That feat was chronicled in the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo and turned him into a mainstream figure featured by outlets such as National Geographic, 60 Minutes and The New York Times.
Honnold’s Taipei 101 climb took approximately 95 minutes, a dramatically faster pace than the roughly four hours it took French urban climber Alain Robert to scale the building in 2004 under government restrictions.
While the viewership total fell well short of Netflix’s biggest live events, including Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson (60 million) and its Christmas Day NFL doubleheaders. It still represented a strong result for a niche sport. The broadcast was also delayed a day due to weather in Taiwan.
Netflix’s 2026 sports slate already includes new MLB coverage and a heavyweight boxing match between Tyson Fury and Arslanbek Makhmudov scheduled for April 11.
More Alex Honnold news:
- Everything you need to know about Netflix's delayed broadcast
- Alex Honnold hometown and more to know about where climbing legend lives
- Alex Honnold will earn 'an embarrassing amount' for conquering Taipei 101
- How Alex Honnold's Taipei 101 climb compares to El Capitan
- How many people have free soloed El Capitan?
Category: General Sports
