UFC 324 has brought in big numbers after the promotion moved to Paramount+ as part of a new $7.7billion agreement.
Dana White took the sport away from pay-per-view under the new deal, and kicked things off with an interim lightweight title fight that lived up to expectations.
Paddy Pimblett and Justin Gaethje went toe-to-toe for 25 minutes, with Gaethje taking a unanimous decision.
Viewership figures released by both Paramount and UFC show over seven million households tuned in at some point during the event. That is a significant jump from pay-per-view numbers, where the highest-grossing card had 2.4million buys.
More than 7 million tune in for UFC 324
The UFC and Paramount shared details on how many people watched UFC 324 on Saturday night. While they have not always been quick to release these figures in the past, they seemed eager to highlight just how many viewers tuned in this time around.
Directly comparing old pay-per-view sales to streams from a service free to Paramount+ subscribers is not straightforward, but there is little doubt that this new arrangement is already widening the sport’s reach.
The official statement read: “Paramount+ today announced a standout debut for UFC 324 held Saturday, January 24, delivering nearly five million streaming views and over seven million households, the platform’s largest exclusive live event to date.
“UFC 324 also reached more homes than any other live UFC event in nearly a decade across linear, broadcast and streaming (source: Adobe Analytics and Nielsen Media).
“With distribution in the U.S. and Latin America, viewers enjoyed seamless access to UFC 324, now made available as part of their Paramount+ subscription without an additional ‘pay-per-view’ cost.”
The numbers showed an average of just under five million concurrent viewers throughout the event. At its highest point, nearly six million people were watching at once.
And that figure does not include additional viewers who may have been watching together on a single stream.
UFC 324 audience numbers expected to climb
The initial viewership figures for UFC 324 are already strong, and they are likely to grow as replay numbers come in. The current data only covers the live broadcast, leaving out those who caught up later.
At the end of the UFC’s statement, it was noted: “This number is likely to increase marginally as additional partner data becomes available in the coming weeks.
“Additionally, these reported numbers only include live viewing and does not include time shifted/delayed viewing (ie this is not ‘Live+Same Day’ it is just live viewing).”
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