Preliminary numbers are in and it would appear that Bellator 170 was a huge success for Spike TV.
Bellator passed along a press release to Fightful.com revealing viewership numbers that make Tito Ortiz vs. Chael Sonnen the most watched Bellator fight since Ken Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie last year. However, with new numbers, it's even better than expected.
1.85 MILLION VIEWERS TUNE IN FOR TITO ORTIZ - CHAEL SONNEN MAIN EVENT ON SPIKE TV
New York, NY, January 24, 2017 – 1.85 million viewers tuned in for the final fight in Tito Ortiz's storied career, a first round submission victory over Chael Sonnen. This marks the most watched Bellator fight on Spike since last February and the most watched MMA fight on television in 2017.
*these are preliminary numbers as the more accurate viewership total factoring in DVR +3 will be released Thursday.
In the co-feature, 1.7 million viewers witnessed Paul Daley's devastating flying knee KO over Brennan Ward.
Overall, Bellator 170 delivered 1.4 million viewers - making it the 3rd most watched card in the franchise's history. The 3-hour Spike telecast was also ranked #1 in cable with Men 18-49 in the timeslot.
Bellator 170 was also a digital and social success as well.
- The Bellator 170 prelims drew the second most viewers on Bellator.com and Bellator mobile app in franchise history (only behind Bellator 149).
- The post-fight press conference streamed exclusively on YouTube saw the most concurrent viewers in Bellator history.
- #Bellator170 was the #1 trending topic on Twitter during the event and Tito Ortiz, Chael Sonnen and Bellator MMA trended #1 on Google Trends.
However, this has since been updated:
With updated ratings information, the Tito Ortiz-Chael Sonnen main event delivered 2.2 million viewers.
Also - 2 million viewers tuned in for the Daley-Ward co-feature.
The entire 3-hour telecast drew 1.5 million viewers.
