UFC Freedom 250 pulls 8.2M viewers, falls short of Rogan claim

UFC Freedom 250 pulled massive streaming numbers but fell far short of the Super Bowl-level audience Joe Rogan claimed it attracted.

Paramount+ announced Thursday that the June 14 card from the South Lawn in Washington averaged 8.2 million viewers across the United States and Latin America, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Nielsen data showed 7 million average viewers in the U.S. and 1.2 million in Latin America. Nearly 17 million people — 15.26 million domestic, 1.67 million in Latin America — watched at least one minute of the seven-fight, seven-finish card.

How the numbers stack up against Rogan's prediction

Those figures are nowhere near the 150 million viewers Rogan said the event drew by the Monday after it aired. The commentator floated that number earlier this week and suggested delayed viewing could push it higher. Super Bowl LX, by contrast, averaged 125.6 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, Telemundo and digital platforms in February. Secretary of State Marco Rubio separately claimed the event could hit one billion viewers — a prediction that clearly missed the mark.

The Paramount+ exclusive still crushed UFC's previous average viewership record. The promotion's 2011 FOX debut, headlined by Junior dos Santos against Cain Velasquez, averaged 5.7 million viewers and peaked at 8.8 million. Last month's Ronda Rousey versus Gina Carano card on Netflix reportedly averaged 9.3 million U.S. viewers and peaked at 11.6 million during the main event.

Paramount+ is expected to release viewing totals from other territories next week. UFC Freedom 250 streamed exclusively behind a subscription paywall.

Reported via:

• MMA Mania — Early UFC White House viewership numbers released — and they’re a far cry from Joe Rogan’s estimates