UFC has started the year off strong, financially speaking.
UFC generated $359 million in revenue ($227 million adjusted EBITDA) during the first quarter of 2025, up 15 percent compared to the promotion’s first three months of 2024.
Details regarding the company’s financials were revealed this week as part of a quarterly report issued by UFC’s parent company, TKO Group Holdings.
A noticeable jump in the revenue came from the promotion’s live events sector, which generated $58 million in the first three months of the year.
The company credited a fair amount of this increase to their February event in Saudi Arabia, which earned them a sizeable site fee payment. While a specific figure wasn’t mentioned for the “Fight Night” card headlined by Israel Adesanya and Nassourdine Imavov, some within the company have previously said that payouts as high as eight figures have been given out for trips to the region.
It was also noted that UFC’s success with ticket sales, attracting larger audiences despite upping the prices to attend live events, was another reason behind the increase.
The “Partnerships and marketing” part of the leading MMA brand’s business model also saw an increase, with $64 million in revenue brought in during the first quarter. UFC has struck various new partnerships in recent months, including a renewal with Monster Energy that they touted was “the largest sponsorship deal in company history.”
“Consumer products, licensing and other,” the smallest part of UFC’s business, was the only sector that was down, dropping to $12 million, roughly $2 million less than what was earned at the start of 2024.
The topic that will loom over all discussions surrounding UFC’s business this year is the promotion’s pending 2026 media rights deal, which they have been negotiating in the open market since mid-April.
It remains hard to gauge whether the promotion will stick with ESPN, which has been the exclusive home for all live programming since 2019, or if other players, including Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and other streamers, could factor into a deal as well.
TKO President Mark Shapiro hasn’t taken any options off the table just yet, as highlighted by comments he made during the quarterly earnings call this week.
“We’re in discussions at this time with various third parties regarding the UFC’s [broadcasting] rights,” he said. “I would term the conversations as thoughtful and strategic. Nothing to announce at this time, and ESPN is still heavily included in the mix. I think we’ve been pretty vocal about how great of a partner they’ve been and how instrumental they’ve been to our growth and success.”
The media rights sector drives more than half of UFC’s revenue, precisely bringing in $224 million in the first quarter of 2025. Because of this, the future of the promotion’s broadcasting agreements will play a significant role in how their quarterly reports will begin to look a year from now.
TKO, which owns the UFC along with WWE, IMG talent agency, production company On Location, and Professional Bull Riders, saw an overall revenue of $1.269 billion, up 4 percent from the first quarter of 2024. Revenue gains from UFC ($46 million) and WWE ($74 million) were somewhat offset by a loss of $73 million on the IMG side of the business, as noted Thursday.
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