The UFC 271 Prelims drew 901,000 viewers on ESPN Saturday night per Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily. The telecast drew 402,000 viewers in the A18-49 demo.
The Prelims started 12 minutes late due to an overrun from a college basketball game.
The feature event saw Andre Arlovski defeated Jared Vanderaa via decision. It also featured the 50th and final MMA fight in Roxanne Modafferi’s career as she stated her intent to retire from the sport with Saturday’s fight.
The Prelims placed 6th overall in cable ratings for Saturday coming in after the Olympics on USA and the two preceding college basketball games on ESPN.
The ratings did far better than last month’s UFC 270 Prelims on ESPN which drew 421,000 viewers and 183,000 in the A18-49 demo.
UFC 270 Prelims 421,000 (183K A18-49)
UFC 269 Prelims 729,000 (358K A18-49)
Payout Perspective:
The ratings reflect a strong night for the UFC despite the fact that the Olympics overshadowed the UFC on cable. But, the 901,000 is still stronger than the last two outings for the Prelims and against better competition. Based on PPV history, the strong ratings should reveal a nice buy rate for Israel Adesanya-Robert Whittaker II.
Leave a Reply