UFC’s Freedom 250 Draws 17 Million Viewers

Freedom 250, UFC’s marquee event staged on the South Lawn of the White House on President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday, drew 17 million viewers in the U.S. and Latin America, Paramount announced. The event was available exclusively on Paramount+. 

Of those 17 million viewers, 15.26 million were in the U.S., with an additional 1.67 million in Latin America. In a statement announcing the viewership, tabulated by Adobe Analytics, Paramount said, “UFC’s unprecedented White House card marked the biggest exclusive live event in Paramount+ history, averaging 8.2M viewers across both markets.” 

Viewership numbers for outside the two regions will be announced next week. 

Joe Rogan, who served as the announcer for Freedom 250, on his podcast said he estimated the event drew 150 million views “overall” as of Monday. That would outrate even the Super Bowl, which this year drew 124.9 million viewers. The five-game NBA Finals series between the Knicks and Spurs, which wrapped up Saturday night, averaged 20.6 million viewers on ABC. It was the most-watched NBA title series since the 1998 NBA Finals (29.04 million on NBC).

UFC’s seven-year, $7.7 billion media rights agreement with Paramount began earlier this year, and many of the promoter’s events, like Freedom 250, are available exclusively on Paramount+. 

March’s UFC 326, the first event in the partnership that had a CBS component, notched the highest linear TV viewership in a decade for the MMA giant with 2.5 million viewers. 

‘We’ll Never Do This Again’

In a post-fight press conference when asked about staging another White House event, UFC president Dana White said, “I can’t afford it.” 

The event came to fruition after a year of planning and more than $60 million spent in development costs. “There’s no fucking way we can do this again. I’ll never do the Sphere again, and we’ll never do this again,” said White. 

UFC went to Freedom 250 expecting to lose about $30 million from the event, though White at the press conference said Paramount CEO David Ellison was pleased with the event’s streaming performance. 

The mixed-martial arts showcase drew nearly 200,000 people over the weekend to the Ellipse, adjacent to the South Lawn where the fights were held, and merchandise sales doubled the prior UFC record.