UFC 329 draws 15.9 million viewers as McGregor suffers knee injury

Conor McGregor's return to the UFC drew a massive global audience of 15.9 million viewers, though his comeback fight ended abruptly after just 69 seconds due to a serious knee injury. The event, UFC 329, took place in Las Vegas and featured a rematch against former featherweight champion Max Holloway.

According to official viewership data, the broadcast reached 14.3 million viewers in the United States and 1.6 million across Latin America. The five-fight main card averaged 6.5 million viewers. While the total audience narrowly missed surpassing the record 17 million viewers set by the UFC White House event in June, UFC 329 set a new promotional record for peak concurrent viewership, with 8.3 million people watching simultaneously. This surpassed the previous UFC high of 7.9 million concurrent streams.

The highly anticipated main event concluded almost as soon as it began. McGregor opened aggressively with a jumping kick but landed awkwardly, injuring his right knee. He struggled to maintain his balance, and referee Mike Beltran stopped the contest at 1 minute and 49 seconds of the first round, awarding Holloway a TKO victory due to injury. McGregor left the Octagon visibly...