UFC Claims Freedom 250 Reached 34 Million Viewers Worldwide

UFC has revealed updated viewing figures for its recent Freedom 250 event at the White House, claiming the audience was significantly larger than initially reported.

When Paramount+ released its first figures on 18 June, the broadcaster said the event attracted an average of seven million viewers across the United States. Those numbers, supplied by Nielsen, counted anyone aged two or over who watched at least one minute of the broadcast. UFC later stated that total viewership across the United States and Latin America had reached 17 million.

The promotion has now announced that once audiences from additional markets, including the UK, Australia, China, India, South Korea and New Zealand were factored in, the estimated global audience rose to 34 million. If accurate, that would make Freedom 250 one of the most-watched events in UFC history.

According to UFC, the revised total is based on a combination of Nielsen data, Paramount’s Adobe Analytics and figures provided by the organisation’s international broadcast partners.

The overall estimate also includes UFC Fight Pass viewership, along with pay-per-view purchases from the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. UFC added that viewing data from several countries, including Spain and France, is still being compiled and is not expected to be available until at least mid-July.

The promotion also noted that some of the global audience estimate has been modelled using viewing trends from previous UFC events broadcast across Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Within the United States, UFC said Freedom 250 became the most-watched event in the company’s history and also claimed it set a new record for the highest live event replay audience on Paramount+. However, it did not release any figures to support the replay viewership claim.

The event comes during the first year of UFC’s seven-year, multi-billion-dollar broadcast agreement with Paramount, which secured the rights to air the promotion’s events. Earlier this year, UFC 324, the first numbered event shown under the new deal, attracted an estimated five million viewers.

Held on 14 June, the seven-fight Freedom 250 card was headlined by 37-year-old Justin Gaethje, who ended Ilia Topuria’s unbeaten run to capture the UFC lightweight title.