Ibai Llanos swaps Twitch for Netflix in three-year La Velada deal

Spanish creator Ibai Llanos is taking his blockbuster boxing event La Velada del Año to Netflix, moving one of the world’s biggest creator-led live shows away from the platform on which it built its audience.

Netflix has secured the next three editions, in 2027, 2028 and 2029, giving the event a global streaming home after years of broadcasting primarily through Llanos’ Twitch channel.

Launched in 2021, La Velada pits internet personalities against each other in amateur boxing matches, interspersed with live music performances. What started in a Barcelona concert hall has grown into an annual stadium spectacle, bringing together some of the biggest digital creators from Spain and Latin America.

Recent editions have filled Madrid’s Metropolitano and Santiago Bernabéu stadiums and La Cartuja in Seville, while average viewership has climbed from nearly one million in 2021 to more than six million this year, according to Netflix. The 2025 edition peaked at 9.3 million concurrent viewers.

“In 2021, we put on La Velada in a concert hall in Barcelona without knowing how far it could go,” Llanos said in a statement. 

“Five years later, millions of people have watched it simultaneously, and bringing it to Netflix for the next three years allows us to make it even bigger without losing what makes it special: the community that makes it possible.”

The switch is particularly notable given how Twitch has held up Llanos’ success.

Speaking to The Daily Influence in July, Twitch vice president of global partnerships Pontus Eskilsson pointed to La Velada as an example of how creators can use live streaming to build much larger entertainment businesses.

“My personal view is that we are there to be an amplifier,” he said at the time. “We don’t need to have a stake in what they’re doing.”

Netflix, meanwhile, has been steadily deepening its ties with creators in a year that has seen it raid talent from YouTube.

In September, travel creator Drew Binsky struck a deal to bring his documentaries to the streamer, following earlier tie-ups with Jay Shetty and Sean Evans.

Netflix has also been expanding its live offering, including through WWE, NFL games and boxing.