In a year where the NFL maintained its iron grip on American television audiences, combat sports found themselves fighting for relevance in 2025’s viewership rankings. According to sources, the year’s top 100 most-watched programs painted a sobering picture: boxing managed a single appearance, while the UFC came up entirely empty.
The September 13 Netflix presentation of Canelo Alvarez versus Terence Crawford secured the 70th position on the top 100 most-watched U.S. telecasts of 2025, drawing 20.3 million viewers. The achievement marked boxing’s solitary appearance on the annual rankings. However, the accomplishment carries significant asterisks that complicate any celebration.
Unlike every other entry on the list, the Canelo-Crawford viewership figures weren’t measured by Nielsen, the industry standard for broadcast metrics. Instead, Netflix self-reported the data through what industry analysts have described as internal calculations combined with VideoAmp estimates. Without independent verification, the numbers exist in a peculiar gray area of credibility.
The measurement discrepancy becomes more problematic when considering what didn’t qualify for inclusion. Netflix’s heavily promoted Jake Paul event from later in 2025 failed to appear on the list because the streaming platform declined to separate U.S. viewership from global totals, rendering it ineligible despite extensive marketing efforts.
UFC’s Total Shutout
Perhaps more revealing than boxing’s questionable lone appearance is the UFC’s complete absence from the top 100. Despite the promotion’s growing popularity and its exclusive broadcast partnership with ESPN, not a single UFC event generated sufficient viewership to reach the 17.39 million threshold required for inclusion.
This represents a continuation of a concerning pattern for the mixed martial arts promotion. While the organization has cultivated a dedicated fanbase and developed a profitable pay-per-view business model, it has struggled to attract the casual sports viewer who tunes in for major cultural moments.
Boxing’s solitary appearance depended entirely on a streaming platform willing to invest substantial resources in a marquee matchup and promote it across multiple channels. Traditional broadcasters have largely withdrawn from boxing, while the UFC’s ESPN partnership hasn’t translated into appointment viewing for general audiences.
The UFC faces a different challenge. The promotion’s frequent event schedule dilutes the “must-see” quality that boxing can still occasionally generate around its biggest names. While boxing operates in relative obscurity for most of the year, it retains the ability to create spectacles that transcend the sport itself.
Football’s Overwhelming Dominance
The NFL accounted for 83 of the top 100 broadcasts in 2025, leaving minimal space for competing sports properties. The Super Bowl alone drew 127.7 million viewers compared to boxing’s unverified 20.3 million
Even the NBA Finals missed the list entirely despite drawing 16.6 million viewers for Game 7, marking the league’s sixth consecutive year outside the top 100. When established sports like professional basketball can’t break through, combat sports face an increasingly difficult task.
The measurement landscape itself favors traditional broadcast events over streaming presentations. Of the top 100 telecasts, 90 were football-related, demonstrating how thoroughly the sport dominates not just ratings but the entire concept of shared viewing experiences.
What the Rankings Reveal
Netflix’s self-reported numbers introduce a variable that didn’t exist in previous years. Without standardized measurement across platforms, comparing streaming events to traditional broadcasts becomes problematic. The Canelo-Crawford figure exists in a category of its own, making it difficult to assess whether boxing truly drew a top-100 audience or simply benefited from favorable internal calculations.
The streaming platform’s refusal to break out U.S.-only numbers for other events suggests selective transparency that further muddies the waters. If Netflix can provide domestic viewership for one boxing match but not another, questions arise about which metrics serve the company’s promotional interests.
The 2025 viewership data presents a sobering reality for combat sports. Boxing’s ability to produce occasional blockbusters now depends on streaming platforms with questionable measurement standards. The UFC, meanwhile, appears to have reached a ceiling in mainstream broadcast appeal, with even its most anticipated events falling short of the viewership generated by routine NFL regular-season games.
The question facing both sports isn’t whether they can compete with football for cultural dominance, that possibility has long since passed. Rather, it’s whether either can consistently earn inclusion in the top 100 broadcasts at all in an environment where even the NBA Finals gets excluded.
