2.1M Livestream Viewers Tune in for Karate Combat 35, Set New Viewership Record for Organization

Live Event Viewership Increases 23% From June Event; Social Impressions Increase 26%

Champion Vs Champion Superfight And Raymond Daniels Debut Deliver Livestream Knockout

15.7 Million Event Day Social Impressions Set New Record For Organization’s Owned Social Channels, Maintain 2022 Upwards Trajectory

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Karate Combat has set new viewership records from event to event throughout 2022 and that pattern continued with Karate Combat 35 as the Saturday, August 27 shattered viewership and social media records for the organization.

A combined livestream audience of 2.1m viewers watched Karate Combat 35 live online, accessing streams made available on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms plus YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Karate.com.

Karate Combat 35 breaks an audience record which was set just two months prior by the Karate Combat: Season 4 Finale in June, with the August event scoring a 23% increase in viewership.

The event also aired live to millions of households in over 160 countries worldwide, with linear television carriers including flagship regional networks such as Eurosport (Europe) and Globo (Brazil) alongside numerous other terrestrial broadcasters and OTT platforms.

New records were also set in social media metrics, with social impressions on Karate Combat channels on fight night topping 15.7 million, a 26% increase on impressions during the Karate Combat: Season 4 Finale which took place on June 25 this year.

The social impression numbers are for Karate Combat owned channels alone and do not include posts made by Karate Combat athletes, media outlets and influencers during the event.

Karate Combat 35 was attended by a sold-out live audience which attended The Backlot at Universal Studios Orlando to see Karate Combat deliver its proprietary blend of live-action, full-contact Karate fights taking place in immersive CGI environments powered by the Epic Game’s Unreal Engine software.

Georges St-Pierre and Bas Rutten led the broadcast team, the two martial arts icons joined by leading analyst Robin Black and veteran commentator Josh Palmer in presenting a card which saw Luiz Rocha defeat Josh Quayhagen in the first ever champion vs champion superfight in Karate Combat history, plus the debut of all-time great Raymond Daniels.

Karate Combat President Adam Kovacs remarked, “Karate Combat continues growing from strength to strength and we’re very happy that so many new fans are coming in with each event. This was a stacked card with our first-ever champion vs champion superfight and the debut of Raymond Daniels and it really delivered. We’re doing something fresh and different and the audience response speaks for itself.”

Karate Combat events are streamed live across all the major social platforms, with the full card then immediately re-posted as video-on-demand, in contrast to other promotions which restrict their social streaming to preliminary bouts and place the most premium fight content behind paywalls.

This “democratized digital distribution” strategy is aimed at the Generation Y and Generation Z cohorts, digital natives who favor streaming over linear television, and has resulted in strong audience capture of males aged 18-34, who comprise 70-90% of Karate Combat’s digital viewership audiences and are the most valuable demographic in sports marketing, advertising and sponsorship.

With its mixture of stand-up striking, judo throws and ground-fighting, Karate Combat falls under the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) umbrella, a sector which has over 600 million fans globally, is regularly counted as among the world’s fastest-growing sports and is populated overwhelmingly by the highly-prized young male Gen Y / Gen Z demographic.

Karate Combat benefits from karate having higher global participation than MMA, with over 100 million participants, and status as an Olympic sport, along with high cultural awareness due to centuries of history and strong presence in popular culture.

Karate Combat’s trademark competition setting is powered by the industry-leading Unreal Engine and has created an instantly recognizable CGI-based look borrowing from the best of video games, blockbuster moviemaking and traditional sports combined.

Karate Combat 36 will take place October 29th, live from the Backlot of Universal Studios in Orlando Florida and 7PM ET / 4PM PT. Go to https://www.karate.com/how-to-watch to learn more.

About Karate Combat

Karate Combat is the only combat sports league to blend the excitement of live-action, full-contact Karate with immersive CGI environments powered by the Epic Games Unreal gaming engine. Olympic medalists and national champions from around the world are just some of the elite black belts invited to compete in eight different weight divisions in pursuit of a Karate Combat World Championship. Karate Combat is streamed and broadcast to over 160 countries worldwide. For more information, please visit www.Karate.com.