UFC 202 prelims do 1.3 million viewers Saturday on FS1

The UFC 202 prelims on Saturday night did an average of 1.3 million viewers for the four fights on FS 1 from 8-10 p.m. ET. That was down 30% from the 1.84 million the UFC 196 prelims did in March, the last time Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz faced each other in the main event.

That would seem to be an indication that the pay-per-view number for this show might be down from the record 1.6 million buys that their first fight did, but there are extenuating factors here that may mean that is not necessarily the case.

First off, this show was up against the Summer Olympics, which did 15 million viewers during prime time. Because the PPV started at 10 p.m. ET with the main event not starting until about 11:30, it’s possible that people would’ve ordered the PPV but not even watched the prelims, similar to a boxing audience.

The prelims were also up against NXT TakeOver on the WWE Network, and with a big UFC show there is usually crossover with a pro wrestling audience. The NXT show ended right around the time the second PPV match was underway.

As reported by Dave Meltzer on Sunday, the UFC show had over five million Google searches as of Sunday afternoon, which would be indicative of another huge PPV buy number.