UFC’s fight card at the White House delivered a record-breaking viewership to Paramount+, according to the streaming platform, with 17 million viewers tuning in. However, this was 117m short of Dana White’s prediction of “Super Bowl-type numbers”.
On Sunday, an unprecedented event took place on the South Lawn, as seven UFC fights played out to celebrate 250 years of the United States, as well as the 80th birthday of President Donald Trump.
Trump sat cageside with UFC chief White, a good friend of his, as the night ended with Justin Gaethje securing an upset stoppage win over Ilia Topuria to become lightweight champion. In the co-main event, Ciryl Gane stopped Alex Pereira to win the interim heavyweight title, although the finish was controversial due to Gane’s allegedly illegal strikes.
In fact, all seven bouts ended with stoppages, as American star Sean O’Malley joined compatriots Josh Hokit and Bo Nickal in picking up victories – although Hokit and Nickal’s wins came at the expense of other US fighters.
Regardless, the event was a success for Paramount+, which was the exclusive broadcaster of the fights in the US and Latin America. While the platform is yet to announce its viewership figures for other territories, 17m viewers watched in the US and Latin America, making it Paramount+’s most-watched exclusive live event ever. The number does not include any delayed viewership, or any viewership where more than one person watched on an account.
However, White had bullishly predicted Super Bowl-level viewing figures. And with this goal in mind, the White House fights drastically underperformed, coming in with 117m viewers less than the 124.9m US average for February’s Super Bowl LX, which aired on NBC.
In January, Paramount+ took over as the UFC’s main broadcast partner, as the mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion moved from a pay-per-view model to a subscriber-based one.
“Since the beginning of the year, 16m subscriber households have watched more than 180m hours of UFC programming on Paramount+,” read a press release on Thursday, “delivering viewership more than 20x the average pay-per-view event over the past two years.
“The inaugural numbered event, UFC 324 on 24 January, broke the record at the time for the largest exclusive live event on Paramount+ with 5m average viewers and 7m households in the US and Latin America, according to Adobe Analytics.” Nielsen was also used to verify figures.
“UFC Freedom 250 [at the White House] was the 6th marquee event in a seven-year deal between UFC and Paramount+ that includes 13 Numbered Events and 30 Fight Nights in the US and Latin America for 2026, with select offerings in Australia. UFC and Paramount+ also recently announced the expansion of UFC Numbered Event Main Card rights to Canada beginning in 2027.”
