Last weekend, United States President Donald Trump hosted the UFC Freedom 250 event on the South Lawn of the White House with thousands of fans in attendance and millions more watching on television. The event was, by all accounts, a success, but not exactly the type of success that commentator Joe Rogan tried to claim it was.
During an episode of his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan claimed without any evidence that the event was one of the most-watched sporting events “in the history of the world” and had “well over” 150 million viewers.
As it turns out, he was completely incorrect. In fact, his estimates were nowhere close.
Rogan’s Ridiculous Claim
During an episode of his podcast this week, Rogan, who was at last weekend’s event as a commentator, claimed that more than 150 million people tuned in for UFC Freedom 250 between Sunday night and Monday alone, and that the number would grow by 50 million the next day.
“It is one of the most-watched sporting events in the history of the world. I don’t know what the total overall views are as of now, but I know that it was like well over, I think it was 150 million just by Monday. Just by Monday,” Rogan claimed on his podcast. “So that’s like the night of and then people that watched the replay that weren’t there when the fight took place because they heard about it. But between then and now, now we’re dealing with Tuesday. It’s probably another 50 or 60 million people.”
It’s not clear where Rogan was getting these numbers, but they were not even remotely grounded in reality, and this was obvious even before the official numbers came in, considering Paramount+ only has 79.6 million subscribers. Even if every one of those subscribers was watching the fight – which is completely unrealistic – that’s still about half the number Rogan claimed.
Rogan Was Completely Wrong
While it was obvious that Rogan was incorrect before the official numbers were even released, the official numbers confirmed it, as UFC Freedom 250 posted an average viewership of 7 million in the U.S. on Paramount+.
For context, the 2025 Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl between Penn State and Clemson averaged 7.6 million viewers. So Rogan’s claim that UFC Freedom 250 was “one of the most-watched sporting events in the history of the world” does not exactly hold up, considering it performed worse than a below-average college bowl game.
It’s not clear how Rogan could have possibly been that incorrect, but he was.
About Dave Kelsey
Contributing author to The Comeback.