Trump UFC Freedom 250 coin attracts attention over price
Trump has linked it to the UFC Freedom 250 coin, sparking controversy over its price and demand.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio predicted that 1 billion people will watch the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House on June 14th.
Mr. Rubio missed the mark by about 980 million people.
Paramount+ reached 17 million viewers in the U.S. and Latin America during UFC Freedom 250, Paramount+ said in a press release issued Thursday, June 18, citing Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.
This breaks Paramount+’s record for highest viewership for an exclusive live event, according to the subscription-based streaming service, which has streamed thousands of exclusive live events since its launch in 2021.
The previous record was 5 million viewers for UFC 324 in January, when Paramount+ debuted as the UFC’s streaming home. Paramount+ paid $7.7 billion over seven years for the exclusive rights.
UFC seeks Super Bowl numbers
Anticipation was high for an unprecedented seven-game card on the South Lawn of the White House.
“We’re expecting Super Bowl-like numbers for this fight,” UFC CEO Dana White told UFC on TNT Sports.
The 2026 Super Bowl was watched by an estimated 125 million viewers, according to Nielsen. This total includes viewership for NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital and NFL+.
Two days before the event, Rubio made the remarks during an appearance with White.
“One billion people around the world will watch America celebrate its 250th anniversary with the White House in the background and the world’s best athletes celebrating in the Octagon,” he said.
This prediction was not optimistic. Paramount+ has approximately 80 million subscribers.
UFC Freedom 250 was available exclusively on Paramount+ in the United States and Latin America. The UFC will release viewership numbers outside of the U.S. and Latin America next week, but Paramount+ did not provide estimates.
Of the 17 million viewers it reached on June 14, 15.26 million were from the United States and 1.67 million from Latin America.
All bouts on the seven-fight card ended by knockout or technical knockout. The main event saw Justin Gaethje dethrone Ilya Topuria by TKO and was considered the greatest match of all time. The lightweight title fight was stopped in Topria’s corner at the end of the fourth round with one round remaining.
