Sports TV Ratings reports that UFC Fight Night 88 on Sunday night drew an average of 757,000 viewers. The prelims which preceded the main card on FS1 drew 469,000 viewers.
The Memorial Day weekend card featuring Thomas Almeida facing Cody Garbrandt drew 381,000 viewers in the adult 18-49 rating. The prelims drew 227,000 viewers in the same demo.
| UFC Fight Night 2016 | ||||
| Main Card | Prelims | |||
| UFC Fight Night 81 | 2,288,000 | 1,767,000 | ||
| UFC Fight Night 82 | 1,300,000 | 1,093,000 | ||
| UFC Fight Night 83 | 983,000 | 829,000 | ||
| UFC Fight Night 85 | 1,149,000 | 766,000 | ||
| UFC Fight Night 86 | 781,000 | 443,000 | ||
| UFC Fight Night 87 | 656,000 | 494,000 | ||
| UFC Fight Night 88 | 757,000 | 469,000 | ||
Payout Perspective:
The main card, which aired Sunday night, was a slight increase (14%) from Fight Night 87 which was a Sunday afternoon card. Notably, the last Sunday night card was UFC Fight Night 83 which did quite well drawing 983,000 viewers and 869,000 viewers for the prelims. Holding a card on Sunday night of a 3-day weekend was a risk especially when the card did not feature top-named stars.
there is no doubt that in terms of combat sports promotions in any of the 3 combat sports shown on American tv that the UFC has the best consistent ratings. They really have solidified their hold on the millennial suburban demographic
I concur, Wil. UFC provides a fairly consistent product, reflected in the ratings.
Cards are fairly stacked and balanced compared to other combat sports (especially boxing). Hell, even the prelims are popular enough to be televised.
Another great card this Saturday.
I argued last year that UFC had a healthy enough profit to double fighter pay:
http://mmapayout.com/2015/05/coker-comments-on-ufc-reebok-sponsor-policy/
Turn out I was right …
“Here’s a few notes on UFC finances and these aren’t estimates but actual numbers. In 2014, UFC grossed $449,008,000 and posted a $73,957,000 profit. That was the year everything went wrong with injuries and such. In 2015, the year Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor got hot, they grossed $608,629,000 and posted a $157,806,000 profit. As compared with WWE, they grossed slightly less but posted more than six times the profit. It should be noted that doesn’t include interest payments on their loans, which were $22,797,000 in 2014 and $21,767,000 in 2015.”
With all this info leaking it will be interesting to see where the business goes. Especially with the Ali Act…