Conor McGregor’s Return Boosts UFC Viewership on Paramount+

Conor McGregor recently made his highly anticipated comeback to the UFC ring, facing off against Mak Holloway in a match that ended in a TKO after just 69 seconds. Despite the brevity of his fight, McGregor drew a significant audience to Paramount+.

According to Adam Stern from Sports Business Journal, Paramount+ attracted an average of 6.1 million viewers for the UFC 329 card featuring McGregor and Holloway. When including an additional 400,000 viewers from Latin America, the total audience reached 6.5 million viewers. This number falls just short of the 7.0 million American viewers who watched the UFC Freedom 250 card at the White House in the previous month.

The peak viewership for Paramount+ during this event hit 8.3 million, exceeding the peak viewership of 7.9 million during the White House event in June. Since Paramount+ began airing UFC events in January, approximately 20 million households have tuned in. With about 80 million global subscribers, Paramount+ is seeing continued success in its first year of the seven-year, $7.7 billion deal with UFC.

On the day of the UFC 324 debut, Paramount+ reportedly gained one million additional subscribers. The transition to streaming has made UFC events more accessible to viewers as compared to previous pay-per-view models. The reception has been positive, indicating that the shift to Paramount+ is aligning well with fans’ preferences and Dana White’s vision for the future of UFC.