“Rowdy” got her wish — and then some.
The first-ever mixed martial arts (MMA) event to stream live on Netflix turned into a massive success this past weekend as former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s Bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey returned from retirement to face fellow women’s MMA pioneer Gina Carano in the main event of MVP MMA 1.
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The fight itself lasted just 17 seconds, with Rousey quickly submitting Carano in front of a packed Intuit Dome crowd in Los Angeles, California.
But despite the incredibly short main event, the event generated historic numbers.
According to an official press release issued on Monday, “Over 12.4 million viewers around the world tuned in live on Netflix, with viewership peaking at almost 17 million during Rousey vs. Carano, making it one of the most-watched MMA events of all time.”
The event also shattered records in the United States.
Per the release, “the triple-main card averaged 9.3 million viewers and peaked at 11.6 million viewers during the main event, making it the most-watched MMA event ever in the U.S.”
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Before the event, Rousey openly stated she hoped the card could break the long-standing American MMA television record set by Junior dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez, which drew 8.8 million viewers during the UFC’s FOX debut back in 2011.
Needless to say, she got her wish.
Beyond the viewership numbers, MVP MMA 1 also reportedly generated more than 410 million impressions across Most Valuable Promotions’ social media channels, while Netflix’s global platforms produced over one billion additional impressions.
The event also drew a live gate exceeding $2.2 million.
So what does all this mean moving forward?
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This strongly suggests MVP MMA is not going anywhere anytime soon.
“We’re incredibly proud of what was accomplished alongside our partners at Netflix and grateful to the athletes who helped make MVP MMA’s debut such a success,” MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian said in the press release. “We’ve received an overwhelming amount of interest from investors, strategic partners, and fighters who want to be involved with MVP and the future of MVP MMA.”
“We are currently reviewing all strategic options to do something very meaningful within MMA on a go-forward basis with a distribution partner like Netflix that shares our vision to create lasting impact,” Bidarian continued.
Considering the staggering numbers attached to the debut event, it’s hard to imagine Netflix and MVP not aggressively pursuing more MMA cards in the future.
Now the big question becomes: can UFC’s upcoming White House event touch those numbers?
Time will tell.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
