The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s partnership with ESPN is apparently already paying major dividends for The Worldwide Leader.
According to a release, ESPN+ gained 568,000 new subscribers on Friday and Saturday combined –525,000 on Saturday alone – a surge that can be largely attributed to the presence of UFC Fight Night Brooklyn on the streaming platform.
While the six-bout main card (along with three early prelims) streamed on ESPN+, four prelims from 8:15 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET aired on ESPN network. That telecast, which was topped by a lightweight tilt between Donald Cerrone and Alexander Hernandez, averaged a 1.4 metered market reading. That makes it the highest rated preliminary card for a UFC Fight Night card since 2013.
Additionally, MMA content brought 1.8 million unique visitors to various ESPN digital platforms.
“All day, and across all ESPN platforms, we collectively demonstrated the promise of what we can do to fulfill our mission of serving a wider array of sports fans,” ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro said.
UFC Fight Night 143 took place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., and saw flyweight champion Henry Cejudo defeat reigning bantamweight king T.J. Dillashaw via technical knockout 32 seconds into their headlining encounter.
The card marked the beginning of a reported 5-year, $1.5 billion deal between the UFC and ESPN. ESPN+ will carry 20 UFC Fight Night events throughout 2019 as well as all preliminary bouts for UFC on ESPN Fight Night programs. Meanwhile, ESPN linear networks will broadcast 10 UFC events per year as well as prelims for pay-per-view cards.