WEC 45 and StrikeForce: ‘Evolution’ Ratings

The ratings are now surfacing and it appears that both organizations drew a similar number. It’s extremely important to keep in mind that Versus is available in far more households than Showtime. MMA Junkie estimates that Versus is available in nearly 75 million homes, whereas Showtime is available in 12 million homes. However, following the StrikeForce: ‘Carano vs. Cyborg’ card in August they estimated Showtime had around 21 million subscribers. I’d guess that the number is anywhere between 18 – 20 million subscribers.

It looks like WEC drew an average of 330,000 viewers for their broadcast on Saturday night. Likewise, WEC 43 drew an average of 419,000 viewers, and WEC 44 drew an average of 414,000 viewers. Maybe it wasn’t so wise for the WEC to use Saturday as their broadcast day. Especially when they’re going up against another popular organization.

In comparison, StrikeForce: ‘Evolution’ drew an average of 341,000 viewers. This was also a huge decrease when compared to their last card on Showtime, ‘Carano vs. Cyborg’, which drew an average of 576,000 viewers.

It might not look like a big success for StrikeForce but it most definitely is. They went head-to-head with Zuffa and beat them, and they did it on a premium subscription based channel. While their numbers did dip, they still did a fairly decent number. Keep in mind that one of the main card fights which featured Robbie Lawler was completely scrapped leaving a total of four fights on the Showtime broadcast.

StrikeForce is beginning to see the snowball effect. It keeps on rolling and continues to get bigger.