The global ratings are in for UFC Freedom 250, and the event performed fairly well outside the United States. After initially announcing ratings of 17 million across the United States and Latin America, UFC doubled that amount when factoring in global viewership, it announced Friday.
Once additional countries — Australia, China, India, South Korea, New Zealand and the U.K. — were factored in, that figure jumped to 34 million.
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That figure makes UFC Freedom 250 “one of the most-watched events in UFC history,” per the release.
That figure, while impressive, is still far below expectations for the event. Most of those expectations were set by UFC CEO Dana White, who said prior to the event that he expected it to see “Super Bowl numbers.” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed billions might tune in and President Donald Trump said he expected it to be one of the most-watched sports events ever.
Following UFC Freedom 250, UFC commentator Joe Rogan said he heard 150 million people watched the even. That figure turned out to be off base.
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By comparison, the Super Bowl drew 126 million viewers worldwide.
In addition to UFC Freedom 250 underperforming in the ratings, White said after the event that he had no interest in doing anything like it again. When asked, White bluntly said, “There’s no f***ing way we can do this again.”
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