In another sign that Saturday’s UFC 194: Aldo vs. McGregor event was “one of the biggest of all-time,” the preliminary fights that aired on FOX Sports 1 prior to the pay-per-view broke the UFC’s all-time FS1 record.
According to F4WOnline.com, 1,931,000 viewers tuned in to watch the UFC 194 prelims, headlined by Urijah Faber vs. Frankie Saenz on FS1.
The 1.931 million viewers for the FS1 prelims on Saturday marks the highest viewership for pre-PPV preliminary fights in the history of UFC on FS1. The prelims also drew more viewers than all but one UFC Fight Night show. The UFC Fight Night 59 show, which ironically enough was headlined by Conor McGregor vs. Dennis Siver, is the only show to out-draw Saturday’s UFC 194 prelims on FS1, but that was a full event and was supported by an NBC conference championship game as a lead-in.
The UFC average viewership for their prelims airing on FS1 in 2015 is 1,073,273 viewers, a 47 percent increase over the average of 728,444 viewers for 2014. Saturday’s UFC 149 prelim viewership nearly doubled this year’s average, and crushed last year’s annual average.
