Netflix just locked up exclusive global live rights to La Velada del Año, Ibai Llanos' streamer boxing night, for 2027, 2028 and 2029. The event that set Twitch's all-time record of 9.3M concurrent viewers is leaving Ibai's Twitch channel for its seventh edition. Ibai keeps ownership. Twitch loses its biggest night of the year.
⚡ Key Takeaways
- Netflix has exclusive global live rights to La Velada del Año for 2027, 2028 and 2029, with an option for one more year.
- Velada VII in 2027 will be the first edition not streamed on Ibai's Twitch channel, its home since 2021.
- Velada V set Twitch's all-time record at 9,334,179 concurrent viewers; average viewership grew from about 1M in 2021 to 6M+ in 2026.
- Ibai licensed only the broadcast rights and keeps 100% ownership. He says Kick offered 3x Netflix's bid, an unverified claim.
- The business is real: Velaris-Kena billed €11.7M in 2025 with €1.7M in profit.
- The lesson for creators: own the IP and the audience relationship, and every platform becomes just one bidder.
What actually happened?
On October 19, Netflix announced it will stream La Velada del Año live and exclusively for the 2027, 2028 and 2029 editions, according to the Netflix newsroom. The deal carries an option for one more year, per Xataka. Fight nights move to Netflix, while presentations, weigh-ins and interviews stay on Twitch and YouTube. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The audience Netflix is buying into is enormous. Velada V peaked at 9,334,179 concurrent viewers on Twitch in July 2025, a platform record per Streams Charts data reported by Culturageek. Average viewership grew from about 1M in 2021 to more than 6M in 2026, per Netflix. This July, Velada VI packed roughly 80,000 people into Seville's Estadio La Cartuja (Qué!) and was watched from 34M+ devices, per La Tribuna.
| Moment | The number |
|---|---|
| 2021 debut on Twitch | ~1M average viewers |
| 2024 revenue (via Goatch Global) | €11.5M |
| 2025 Velada V, Twitch peak | 9,334,179 concurrent |
| 2025 revenue (Velaris-Kena) | €11.7M, €1.7M profit |
| 2026 Velada VI, all platforms | 34M+ devices, 8.7M peak |
| 2027 Velada VII | Live exclusively on Netflix |
Why does this matter for creators?
Because Ibai didn't sell the thing that matters. He licensed the live broadcast and kept 100% ownership of the event, according to Xataka. He also says Kick offered three times what Netflix did, a claim he made himself and no outlet has verified.
That's the whole story in one move. A streamer built an IP on a platform, then put that IP's distribution up for bid like a sports league. Twitch was the launchpad, not the landlord. When a creator owns the format, the brand and the company, the platform becomes a vendor.
This isn't vibes, either. Velaris-Kena, the company that now runs La Velada, billed €11.7M in 2025 with €1.7M in profit, per Mercantile Registry filings reported by Cinco Días and Forbes España via Qué!. That's up from €11.5M in 2024, when the event ran through Goatch Global, the joint venture with Gerard Piqué's Kosmos.
"Taking it to Netflix for the next three years lets us make it even bigger without losing what makes it special: the community that makes it possible."
Ibai Llanos, creator and owner of La Velada del Año, elDiario.es (translated from Spanish)
What's the bigger picture?
Twitch had already lost exclusivity once. Velada VI was the first edition simulcast on Twitch, YouTube and TikTok, and YouTube alone passed 20M devices while Twitch passed 7M, per La Tribuna. Twitch's preliminary peak landed close to 8M, below the fifth edition's record, per Qué!. The audience had already shown it would follow Ibai anywhere.
Netflix knows the risk. On stream, Ibai said Netflix kept telling him "the biggest screw-up we could make is for people to feel that Netflix has arrived to change things" (translated, via Terreno Viral). Keeping weigh-ins and pressers on Twitch and YouTube is how they keep the community in the room. The fight goes to Netflix, the hype cycle stays where the fans live.
Watch 2027 closely. If a Spanish-language streamer event holds its audience behind a Netflix subscription, every creator with a tentpole night just got a new comp. With roughly 20M Twitch followers per Streams Charts, Ibai is one of the two most-followed channels on the platform, so this exit is a signal, not a footnote.
What does Fanvault think?
Ibai's leverage came from ownership, and that's the lesson for every creator who will never get a call from Netflix. Fanvault is built for streamers, gaming talent and combat-sports athletes to own their monetization directly, with subscriptions, paywalled posts, paid DMs, tips and wishlists at an 8% platform fee, so creators keep 92% (versus Fanvue at 15%, Passes at 10% + $0.30 and Fanfix at ~20%). Fanvault's storefront brings the sports-memorabilia model to creators, with auctions and buy-it-now drops of authenticated memorabilia like signed items and stream-worn apparel, exactly the artifacts a fight night produces. Rent your reach to whoever pays most, but own the place where your fans actually pay you.
Twitch built La Velada's audience. Ibai built La Velada. Only one of them got to decide where it goes next.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Ibai Llanos sell La Velada del Año to Netflix?
No. Ibai licensed the live broadcast rights for 2027, 2028 and 2029 and says he keeps 100% ownership and creative control of the event, according to Xataka. The deal includes an option for one more year.
Will La Velada del Año still be on Twitch?
The fights will not. Starting with the 2027 edition, fight nights stream live and exclusively on Netflix. Pre-event programming like presentations, weigh-ins and interviews stays on Twitch and YouTube.
How big is La Velada del Año?
Velada V peaked at
How much did Netflix pay for La Velada del Año?
Financial terms were not disclosed. Ibai says Kick offered three times what Netflix put on the table, but that is his own claim and has not been independently verified. For scale, the company running the event billed