The UFC‘s heavily promoted debut on Paramount+ delivered an average minute audience of 4.96M viewers on Saturday night, per data from parent company Paramount Global on Monday.
The company says that UFC 324, which saw Justin Gaethje defeat a bloody Paddy Pimblett in the main event, marked the biggest exclusive live event on Paramount+ to-date. According to Paramount, there have been “thousands” of exclusive live events on the streamer, but it’s not clear exactly how many could have stood to generate a sizable audience like this one.
In other terms, UFC 324 was watched by 7.18M global households and peaked with 5.93M concurrent streams, Paramount Global says. None of these data points account for co-viewing, which is common with this sport, nor do they include any delayed viewing.
Paramount also touts that the event reached the largest household audience for a live UFC event in nearly a decade across linear, broadcast and streaming.
It did not say which other event in the past decade has drawn a larger audience, however a stat like this is to be somewhat expected considering that Paramount removed any additional pay-per-view costs to stream the fights on Paramount+.
Per Paramount Global, all data comes from a combination of Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.
UFC 324 was headlined by two marquee championship fights. In the main event, lightweight superstars collided as former interim UFC lightweight champion and former BMF titleholder Justin Gaethje took on fan favorite Paddy “The Baddy” Pimblett in an interim UFC lightweight title fight. In the co-main event, UFC women’s bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison sought to defend her title and lay claim to G.O.A.T status as she took on UFC Hall of Famer Amanda Nunes, who returned to the Octagon for the first time since 2023.
This marks the start of a landmark deal between Paramount and UFC which gives audiences unprecedented access to every marquee numbered event and all UFC Fight Night events across the U.S. and Latin America. In Australia, Paramount+ subscribers will enjoy the preliminary fights for all marquee numbered events and all 30 UFC Fight Night events, included with their subscription, at no additional cost.
