UFC Freedom 250 at White House averages 7M viewers in U.S.

          • Brett OkamotoJun 18, 2026, 06:31 PM ET
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              Brett Okamoto has reported on mixed martial arts and boxing at ESPN since 2010. He has covered all of the biggest events in combat sports during that time, including in-depth interviews and features with names such as Dana White, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and Georges St-Pierre. He was also a producer on the 30 for 30 film: "Chuck and Tito," which looked back at the careers and rivalry of Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. He lives in Las Vegas, and is an avid, below-average golfer in his spare time.
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          Last weekend's UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House reached 17 million total viewers across the U.S. and Latin America on Paramount+, the streaming company announced Thursday.

          According to Paramount, the seven-bout card averaged 8.2 million viewers (7 million in the U.S., 1.2 million in Latin America) and totaled 17 million (15.26 million in the U.S., 1.67 million in Latin America). Paramount stated the numbers were provided by Nielsen, the industry standard in reporting TV viewership metrics, and Adobe Analytics. The figures represent only live viewership and do not account for delayed views.

          Paramount indicated that the UFC would release global viewership figures at a later date.

          Justin Gaethje upset Ilia Topuria for the lightweight championship via TKO in the fourth round of Sunday's main event.

          In the lead-up to UFC Freedom 250 last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio predicted that 1 billion people worldwide would watch the event, which took place on President Donald Trump's birthday on the South Lawn of the White House. UFC CEO Dana White predicted it would draw "Super Bowl-type numbers."

          Last month, MVP MMA on Netflix drew an average of 12.4 million viewers for a card headlined by female pioneers Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano. That figure was not independently confirmed by Nielsen and also included delayed "live +1" viewership. According to MVP MMA, the event peaked at 17 million live viewers during a main event that lasted only 17 seconds.