UFC’s White House Event Lost $30M, but Business Kept Growing

UFC and parent company TKO Group Holdings said late Monday that they generated a series of financial gains during the second quarter, despite roughly $30 million in fiscal losses from June’s UFC Freedom 250 in Washington, D.C.

In a TKO quarterly earnings report, UFC reported a 29% bump in total revenue to $535.7 million and a 15% bump in adjusted earnings to $280.4 million. The unprecedented setting on the White House South Lawn did not allow UFC to charge fans for tickets, but still fueled a series of other historic results, including in merchandise sales and sponsorships, and an estimated $1 billion in earned media value. 

“The card, the production, and the storytelling were a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle on the biggest stage possible,” TKO president and COO Mark Shapiro said in a call with analysts. 

The latest results arrived seven weeks after UFC Freedom 250 main event completed a largely successful, but still often-chaotic and politically charged weekend in the nation’s capital. Nearly 200,000 people attended at the Ellipse, adjacent to the South Lawn where the fights were held. Merchandise sales, meanwhile, doubled the prior UFC record, and White said Paramount CEO David Ellison was pleased with the event’s impact on the Paramount+ streaming service. 

Globally, UFC reached an audience of 34 million people with the event, with about half of that viewership deriving from the U.S. While a historically strong figure for the promotion, it was still well short of UFC president Dana White’s predictions of drawing “Super Bowl–type numbers.”

UFC went to the Washington event expecting to recoup only half of the $60 million the fights cost to put on, and reconfirmed those figures late Monday. That red ink, along with a series of weather and logistical challenges, prompted White to say regarding Freedom 250 “there’s no fucking way we can do this again.”

The fiscal loss in the nation’s capital, meanwhile, cut UFC’s adjusted profit margin for the quarter from 59% to 52%, and absent Freedom 250, margins would have increased year-over-year. 

Broader Results

Overall, TKO said it generated $1.547 billion in revenue during the quarter, up 18%. Net income rose 11% to $303.9 million. Both measures surpassed Wall Street expectations. 

Those consolidated results included a series of gains at pro wrestling’s WWE and at IMG, in addition to UFC’s results. With those ongoing financial increases, TKO on Monday added $100 million to its low-end revenue guidance for all of 2026, and $35 million to its adjusted earnings guidance. 

TKO’s earnings release is beginning what will be a frenetic week of quarterly reports this week across the sports and media industries, with subsequent filings scheduled in the coming days for CBS Sports parent company Paramount, ESPN parent company Disney, the Atlanta Braves, Fox, and TNT Sports parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, among others.