History was made when ONE Championship held their ONE: A NEW ERA event in Japan last 31 March.
For starters, this was ONE’s first ever event in The Land of the Rising Sun, and with 15 bouts and 23 world champions across multiple pillars of martial arts, this was also the biggest event in martial arts history.
Held at the historic Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, ONE: A NEW ERA hosted a super-stacked card that featured four world title bouts, three ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix quarter-final bouts, a ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix quarter-final bout, the promotional debuts of Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alvarez.
All of these factors made it easily ONE Championship’s biggest event ever.
Outside the cage however, even more history was made, as ONE: A NEW ERA turned out to be a viewership magnet. The event pulled in a remarkable 41.9 million viewers worldwide, as revealed by ONE Championship chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong.
“I’m thrilled to announce that ONE: A New Era in Japan broke a new record viewership high for ONE Championship with 41.9m viewers from around the world,” Sityodtong said on Facebook.
As impressive as that figure sounds, Sityodtong shared that the actually fell short of their target. Still, Sityodtong was nothing but grateful to the fans who contributed to the record-breaking number.
“While it did not hit the target of 50m that my team and I had set out to achieve when we decided to throw this mega event in Tokyo, I am full of gratitude and appreciation to the greatest fans in the world,” he stated.
Aside from the number of viewers, ONE: A NEW ERA was also a hot topic on social media, as it became one of the top trends in different big-market countries.
“ONE Championship even trended #1 or #2 on Twitter in various countries such as US, Japan, Singapore, Australia, etc during that show,” Sityodtong added.
ONE Championship has definitely come quite a long way from their humble beginnings, and even just as early as 2015 when the numbers weren’t as extravagant. Yet, Sityodtong says that this is just the beginning of what they hope to be even bigger figures.
“For perspective, our viewership averaged only 700k viewers per event in 2015. Our 3 year goal is to achieve an average of 100m viewers per event,” Sityodtong said. “It might sound crazy, but I work with the best team on the planet!”.
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