The UFL ended year two of its merger this past Saturday night in a firework filled game on ABC, which saw the DC Defenders best the Michigan Panthers 58-34 to become league champions. The XFL and USFL conference champions combined for 92 points, but the record output wasn’t able to score the league its best viewed game of the season or match up to recent spring pro league championship games.
Saturday’s 6/14 primetime UFL 2025 Championship Game telecast on ABC was watched by an average of 983,000 viewers. The game’s viewership peaked at 1.2 million viewers during its opening 15 minutes at 8-8:15 pm eastern time. The 983k average is down nearly 40 percent from the UFL 2024 Championship last June on FOX, which averaged 1.596 million viewers.
The final rating for the UFL on ABC in the league’s most important game of the 2025 season is undoubtedly a downer. Especially considering, that ABC had scored eight of the UFL’s top 10 audiences of the season, including last week’s USFL conference game which averaged 1.1 million viewers. The 983k average for the Championship contest, still ranks as the third most viewed game of the 2025 UFL season, but is a letdown to compared to the USFL, XFL, and UFL championship game’s viewership levels since 2022.
The disappointing finale audience caps off a downward year two trend, which saw the UFL experience decreases in league viewership and attendance, almost completely across the board. The novelty for the merger wore off, and some apathy set in among the league’s dedicated fan base.
On top of that, In what is a never-ending struggle for outdoor spring pro football leagues, the UFL was unable to attract casual football fans to sample the product in 2025. Something that has occurred in years past for league openers and championship games.
The quality of play and the broadcasts on ABC, in particular were at peak level this season. Thanks in great part to the addition of a highly invested Joe Tessitore on play-by-play. But the UFL’s ownership and partner group which includes FOX, and Disney, needs to regroup, and find a way to reinvigorate its loyal fanbase, and attract new fans.
3 Comments
by 4th&long
These were two big TV mkts. Granted they are in markets with NFL playoff teams. But while I saw alot of press coverage in Detroit and some media coverage, I saw nothing in Wash DC.
The league can’t afford having large markets underperform. Curious to see how DC and Mich did.
The game was over by the half and Mich defense was way disappointing to watch, it was a beat down by DC over Wash. Clearly being on Saturday night vs Father’s Day Sunday night (2024) also had an impact. The NHL finals and MLB on Fox didn’t help at all, but still need to get 1.4+ here.
Don’t forget the Army parade Saturday that likely had alot of FB fans. There were the protests too, lots of distractions on that Sat. No excuses but things not falling UFL way in 2025
Major disappointment, did not see that coming. Having said that I thought the game was going to be a barn burner and come down to the wire. Lots of scoring but lopsided. And Mich looked lackluster on Def. Very poor.
The league has alot of work to do for 2026 and beyond. They need to get off their asses. I’m sure you’ll have articles and podcasts post season to get into that more.
One other thing, NHL and NBA finals way down in 2025 too. TV viewership in general is down 13% in 2025 per SportsMediaWatch.
– That explains part of the drop in 2025 in general – Its also why Fox is launching “FOX ONE” streaming service which sounds like a streaming mirror of their TV programming.
– Interesting here is that an ever growing % of streaming is FREE streaming services. YouTube, Roku, Pluto, Tubi – now at 40% of streaming services minimum.
by Ken Granito
I don’t know where you get all this information, but I so appreciate it, because anything I really know about tv markets is relegated to the amount of viewers. I try to build consistencies of what I know so I track the limited things I understand, but sometimes when you come up with stuff and dig down……no lie sometimes I don’t get it, but often you have enjoy supporting information, I kind of get the message. Thanks for your input and support. It helps me understand your message a little better. I hope you enjoyed the season. I truly enjoy watching these players play the game they love. I just want it to mean more, which is why I want a better brand of football. Enjoy the off-season. Thanks too to the whole UFL News Hub team. I may not always agree with you, but I always respect you and appreciate what you do for us all.
by Gary Winter
The game was truly remarkable from an offensive standpoint. Defense? Not so much. I was at the game as a sad Battlehawk’s fan watching a “What might have been” game in a fairly empty stadium. All of us who read up on the UFL know about this years decline in both attendance and viewership. There are many reasons for these declines, little or none of which was the quality of the games.
So, since our interests in this league and sport are such that we check this and other websites somewhat religiously, how can we, as fans help to fix the problem? We’re all about complaining or agonizing over things getting worse and the mistakes the league brass and even the coaches and sometimes referees make. How would you, as a fan, fix things?
We’ve all expressed some ideas, can we help? Is there something we, as fans can do to help the league see things through a fan’s eyes that might help them in some of their decisions? Give them ideas they may not have thought of.
Maybe I’m just being silly as my wife would say but it seems that many who write in have some pretty good ideas and we certainly care or we wouldn’t be here “flapping our gums” in a sense each and every week.
Give it a try. If nothing else, it’s probably therapeutic.
Ideas for repairing the UFL:
1. Get others involved with contributing their ideas towards helping to fix the league.
2. Start the season within a week or 2 of the Superbowl while football fans are looking for something to replace their teams games. This also would reduce the hot temps during the season with the southern teams and reduce the competition on TV. It also catch people early in the year prior to family things such as youth baseball, family picnics, etc.
3. Expand in 2026 to 10 teams into larger markets such as Oakland and New Jersey, Philadelphia, Tampa or New Orleans.
4. Expand as soon as possible so advertising and promotion of the new teams can begin in their areas.
5. Get rid of the XFL/USFL designations for the divisions. Those weren’t great successes so why keep reminding people about them?
6. This one might be kind of odd but re-do many of the uniforms. Several look very similar other than the color and the helmets. It is a new league! They need to look like it.
7. Advertise wherever and whenever possible.
8. Expand to 12 teams in 2027 to markets who have expressed interest in the league. Columbus, Seattle, Oklahoma City or some of the others mentioned above.
9. At some point, ownerships need to be sold to local owners. It’s the only way to really make these teams a true part of the city they represent.
10. Make stadium agreements where possible to insure that the UFL teams and games aren’t treated as add-ons.
These are some ideas and I’m certain many of you have tons more and better. Give it a try…