UFC White House viewership revealed as Topuria vs Gaethje sets new promotion record

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As many had expected, UFC Freedom 250 ended up breaking viewership records for the promotion.

The UFC headed to Washington, DC, for its latest visit to the White House lawn. The card was headlined by two title fights, with Justin Gaethje beating Ilia Topuria in the lightweight main event.

Earlier in the night, Alex Pereira came up short against Ciryl Gane in his attempt to become a three-division champion.

While ‘Poatan’ missed out on making history on June 14, the event as a whole did not – with record-breaking numbers reported from Paramount+.

A lot of fans have been waiting to see the official numbers for UFC Freedom 250, and the event didn’t disappoint. The seven-fight card was filled with knockouts, drawing millions to their screens as the action played out on the White House South Lawn.

UFC White House hits 17 million viewers peak on Paramount+

According to a press release from Paramount+, UFC White House averaged 8.2 million viewers across the US and Latin America, based on data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.

The broadcast reached a peak of 17 million viewers, setting a new record as the most-watched UFC event ever and becoming the largest exclusive live event in Paramount+ history.

This peak also ties the record set by Ronda Rousey’s return against Gina Carano on Netflix earlier this May. For context, Netflix has over 325 million subscribers worldwide compared to Paramount+’s 79 million. Still, those numbers highlight just how big an impact Sunday’s card had.

Before UFC Freedom 250, Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos in 2011 held that record with an audience of around 8.8 million viewers on FOX.

The average audience for Sunday’s card was nearly as high as that old peak number, underlining just how significant this event was for the sport and its growing mainstream appeal.

Though the numbers are undeniably strong, they didn’t quite hit the mark that Dana White had set when he aimed for Super Bowl-level viewership. Joe Rogan also claimed a much higher number than what has been reported.

The UFC commentator said on his podcast that 150 million people either watched live or streamed the event the next day. If that’s to be believed, then an additional 133 million people would’ve had to tune in after the fact to reach that figure.