The UFC Freedom 250 from the White House Lawn on Sunday night delivered 7 million viewers on Paramount+, marking the first time Nielsen-measured figures have been released for a live event on the streaming platform (in combo with Adobe Analytics, similar to how NBC measures Peacock). Paramount Skydance claims that the audience is a record live number for Paramount+. While not publicly released before, UFC and Paramount+ are claiming that UFC 324 back in January -- the first bout under the new media-rights deal -- drew 5 million viewers and was the prior record.
UFC Freedom 250 outdrew the clinching Game 6 of Hurricanes-Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup final on Sunday night, as that ABC telecast drew 5.9 million viewers head-to-head.
The UFC bout is even with what some NBA Conference Semifinals game drew, including Game 4 of Cavaliers-Pistons on NBC and Game 5 of Spurs-T’Wolves on NBC in mid-May. It’s also even with NBC’s Game 7 of the Cavaliers-Raptors series in the NBA First Round this year.
Despite claims from some politicians, the UFC audience was over 117 million viewers short of the Super Bowl figure from earlier this year. The only NFL games the UFC card would have topped were some morning games European games (9:30am ET kickoffs) on NFL Network, like a Broncos-Jets game from London in early October.
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