UFC 244 Sets ESPN 2 Viewing Record With Prelims
UFC 244 was a night to remember as Nate Diaz faced off against Jorge Masvidal in the main event, causing the preliminary bouts to skyrocket in views for ESPN 2, per MMA Fighting.
The prelims ran from 8:00 to 10:000 pm ET and averaged 910,000 viewers in the first hour, and included the bout between Corey Anderson and Johnny Walker, where Anderson pulled off the upset in the first round by knockout. The second hour of the prelims averaged 1,121,000 viewers and included the Shane Burgos third-round TKO win over Makhwan Amirkhani.
The search count for UFC 244 on Google was only second to Daylight Savings Time. It also got more searches than the boxing bout between Canelo Alvarez vs. Sergey Kovalev, which was one of the biggest boxing events of the year. The match was specifically put after UFC 244 for this reason, due to it being on the same night.
It also beat the viewership numbers for the three college football games that played throughout the day on ESPN 2. The biggest competition throughout the day were other college football games on stations such as FOX, ESPN, ABC and FS1. The UFC 244 prelims on ESPN 2 were the second most viewed station in its time slot coming right behind ESPN’s Ole Miss vs. Auburn football game.
This continues to show that the world of MMA is growing exponentially and is starting to level the playing field with recognition among the biggest stations in the world.
What do you think about the record ESPN 2 numbers put on by the UFC 244 prelims?
