Now that the dust has settled on the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational, the viewership figures for the event have come through. This was actually one of the key points that Craig Jones made during the build-up to the event, that streaming it for free on YouTube would allow the world to see exactly how popular a major professional grappling event could be. Historically promotions like ADCC or IBJJF have put their major events behind a paywall at FloGrappling and they’ve either not been able to any viewership figures, or simply chosen not to. This has made negotiation tough for athletes, as none of them have any idea how popular their performances truly are.
That can all change now that the viewership figures for the Craig Jones Invitational have been confirmed. The event itself was a massive success with so many incredible matches taking place one after the other, and Nicky Rodriguez had already revealed that it had made the money spent on it back. But the fine details of just how popular the event was is what’s going to be most important to any athletes wanting to bargain for better pay. The tournament had 1.8 million viewers on the first night and 1.32 million on the second night, for a fantastic total of well over 3.1 million viewers.
One of the most important facts to emerge is how well the event performed in certain key age demographics for advertisers. The 18-34 and 18-49 age demographics are the most coveted and it did very well there, even ranking in the top 10 on the second night. It was even able to compete with mainstream sports like NASCAR, boxing, and football in these demographics. Interestingly, the majority of the viewers were actually from outside the United States as well. This shows huge international appeal and is even more impressive considering the fact that it was broadcast at a time that was most suitable for US audiences.
The full breakdown of the viewership figures for the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational was announced on an episode of The Grappling Hour, uploaded to their official YouTube channel:
