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A star-studded lineup, a historic venue, more than $60 million in expenditure, and an atmosphere that screamed American patriotism all pointed toward the UFC White House event on June 14 being a massive viewership success. However, despite the vastness of the spectacle, the recently released Paramount+ numbers appear to have fallen short of what had been previously claimed by Dana White and Joe Rogan.
UFC’s current broadcasting partner, Paramount+, exclusively streamed the event on their platform in the US and Latin America and on Thursday revealed the viewership numbers for the event. According to analytics platforms Nielsen (for the U.S.) and Adobe Analytics (for Latin America), the UFC White House event reached a total viewership of 17 million across the U.S. and Latin America. Plus, the spectacle also became the biggest exclusive event in Paramount+ history, averaging 8.2 million viewers across both markets.
As for the breakdown, Yahoo Sports reported that 15.26 million people in the U.S. and 1.67 million in Latin America watched the card for at least one minute. The average audience across all seven fights on the card turned out to be 7 million in the U.S. and 1.2 million in Latin America. However, those numbers do not include delayed viewing or those who watched the event on DVR within the next 24 hours. It is also worth noting that the 17 million peak figure only accounts for viewers in the United States and Latin American countries. The UFC is expected to announce the viewership numbers outside of these regions in the next week.
Previously, UFC 328 in May stood as Paramount+’s most successful event, reportedly drawing a peak viewership of 8.4 million on the platform. Yet, the UFC Freedom 250 event comfortably shattered that record. However, the UFC White House card’s viewership number of 17 million is actually close to the figures raked in by Most Valuable Promotions’ first MMA event headlined by Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano last month (peaking at around 17 million)—an event which was broadcast on Netflix.
A major distinction, though, is that the 17 million figure for MVP MMA 1 represented its global peak viewership, while the UFC White House event achieved the same number from the U.S. and Latin American markets alone. In that case, the actual global peak viewership for the June 14 event could be significantly higher than the current Paramount+ figures.
BREAKING: The UFC White House event reached a total of 17 MILLION viewers on Paramount+ pic.twitter.com/CqTz1TIdM0
Still, in terms of average U.S. viewership, the MVP MMA 1 event drew 9.3 million viewers, while the UFC White House event averaged only 7 million, according to Most Valuable Promotions’ social media post. So, that represents a healthy 2.3 million-viewership gap.
Noticing the difference, Jake Paul, alongside other fans, couldn’t help but mock Dana White and Joe Rogan for their earlier claims about the UFC Freedom 250’s viewership numbers.
Fans call out Dana White and Joe Rogan after Paramount+ reveals UFC White House numbers
After Paramount+ revealed the numbers, Jake Paul shared a clip on social media comparing the average U.S. viewership of both events, with MVP clearly ahead, writing, “1st MVP event vs 329th event. Where y’all @UFC.” Following that, a fan joined the conversation and wrote, “So much for a billion 
.” Another user also took a dig, writing, “Just a couple views short of the billion that Dana said would happen.”
To be fair, Dana White never actually said the event would draw a billion viewers. It was Secretary of State Marco Rubio who floated that insane number, which was clearly far-fetched. However, the UFC CEO did suggest that the event could attract Super Bowl-level viewership, and after the event too, White claimed the card had pulled in “monstrous” numbers on Paramount+ based on a discussion he had with Paramount CEO David Ellison. While the numbers are huge, they are obviously nowhere close to the Super Bowl numbers; Super Bowl LX peaked at 138 million viewers, across NBC, Peacock, Telemundo and other digital platforms. So, the numbers are not all that “monstrous” when compared to other marquee sports.
While the promotion is yet to announce its global numbers, it would still be an unexpected jump from 17 million to even 50 million viewers, let alone matching Super Bowl figures. But after Dana White, fans also turned their attention to Joe Rogan, who floated an astronomical 150-160 million viewership figure for the UFC White House event recently on his podcast.
“I think it was 150 million just by Monday,” Rogan had claimed. “So that’s like the night of, and then people that watched the replay that weren’t there when the fight took place because they heard about it. But now between now and between then and now, now we’re dealing with Tuesday; like, there are probably another 50 or 60 million people.”
So, clearly, that’s not the case. As a result, one fan accused Rogan of exaggerating the event’s numbers, writing, “So Joe Rogan lied about 150 million viewers lmao.” Another user followed it up with, “150M down to 17? I didn’t know Joe Rogan worked for the BLS.”
When the UFC commentator made the claim, he was likely considering the overall viewership for the event across the globe, including replays and delayed viewing. However, that number still sounds insanely far-fetched and just too good to be true. But by next week, we’ll know for certain just how far the numbers stretched.
Continuing the roast, another user wrote, “With huge stars Poatan, Ilia, O’Malley, and still barely beat the views of 2 grandmas on Netflix.” Here, the fan took a dig at UFC White House for matching the peak viewership numbers of Netflix’s Rousey-Carano event. Jake Paul’s event going toe-to-toe with the UFC’s marquee card certainly highlights the growing competition between the two promotions.
However, the real test will be whether MVP can keep the momentum going in the long run, especially with the UFC already having UFC 329 and UFC 330 lined up. Then some fans simply enjoyed the spectacle and did not care about the numbers at all. One user wrote, “Best thing I’ve ever watched on tv ngl. I don’t care how many watched.”
Even though the UFC White House card might not have touched the hundred-million mark in terms of overall viewership, the numbers it generated from just the U.S. and Latin American markets are still massive.
The post “So Much for a Billion”: Jake Paul Joins Fans to Mock Dana White, Joe Rogan Over UFC White House Viewership appeared first on EssentiallySports.
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