UFC White House card draws 17 million viewers to break Paramount+ streaming record

The UFC’s White House card set a streaming benchmark, drawing 17 million total viewers across the U.S. and Latin America to become the biggest exclusive live event in Paramount+ history, according to figures released Thursday by Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.

In the U.S. alone, the event averaged 7 million viewers with a total of 15.26 million tuning in across the broadcast. Latin America contributed a further 1.2 million average viewers and 1.67 million in overall reach. Combined across both markets, the card averaged 8.2 million viewers. Full global figures are expected from the UFC next week.

UFC CEO Dana White said after the event that Paramount CEO David Ellison, who attended the show on the south lawn of the White House, was overjoyed by the early numbers. The result represents a significant commercial validation for both organisations in the first year of their partnership.

To contextualise the scale of the achievement, the first UFC card on FOX — headlined by the heavyweight title fight between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos — averaged 5.7 million U.S. viewers and peaked at 8.8 million. That record stood as the most-watched MMA event in U.S. history until the recent MVP MMA card headlined by Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano, which averaged 9.3 million U.S. viewers and peaked at 11.6 million. The White House card surpasses both benchmarks in total reach. The UFC is currently in the first year of a seven-year, $7.