Netflix put up a solid showing for its most recent combat sports card, but it fell short of its other previous promotions.
According to multiple reports, Saturday’s MMA card headlined by Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano drew 12.4 million global viewers live and on-demand within 24 hours. Global viewership for the event peaked at nearly 17 million viewers. The figure, which includes measurements from VideoAmp, G&G Closed Circuit Events, and internal Netflix data, cannot be compared to traditional Nielsen data.
17 million global viewers tuned in to watch Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano on Netflix, averaging 12.4 million viewers across the triple main event! #RouseyCarano pic.twitter.com/p4TMQ3cPBn
— Netflix (@netflix) May 19, 2026
In the United States, Saturday’s card averaged 9.3 million viewers and peaked at 11.6 million viewers when Rousey submitted Carano early in the first round.
No matter how you slice it, Rousey-Carano was not nearly the same viewership draw as other fights Netflix has promoted. For instance, the boxing match between Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua averaged 33 million viewers in December, and Terence Crawford-Canelo Alvarez captured 36.6 million viewers for the streamer.
It is difficult to put any fight viewership data Netflix releases into context considering the streamer uses different measurement firms for live events than the rest of the industry, which treats Nielsen data as the gold standard. However, assuming Netflix hasn’t meaningfully changed how it measures its own events, it is reasonable to compare the Netflix fights to each other.
While Rousey-Carano did not live up to the peaks that Netflix has captured, like 60 million viewers for Jake Paul-Mike Tyson in 2024, it did beat out the Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano fight last summer, which drew 6 million viewers.
Even if Rousey-Carano was on the low end for a Netflix fight, few other sporting events are capturing eight-figure audiences, albeit with the big caveat that these figures could look much different if measured by Nielsen. The fights also fit perfectly into Netflix’s events-based sports strategy.
It’s pretty clear Netflix has a good thing going with its foray into combat sports, but there are still legitimate questions about how well these events can draw without a huge name like Rousey anchoring the card.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.