How to watch UFC in 2026: Paramount+ and what changed

For US fans, the biggest change in 2026 was the end of UFC pay-per-view. Paramount signed a seven-year, $7.7 billion deal for the UFC's US rights in August 2025, and since the start of 2026 every numbered event and every Fight Night has streamed on Paramount+ as part of a normal subscription. A numbered card that cost up to $79.99 on pay-per-view last year is now included in a plan that starts at $8.99 a month.

Below are the plans, what they cost and the cards still to come this year.

What moved and why

ESPN had the UFC through the end of 2025, paying about $500 million a year under a five-year deal, and sold its premium events as pay-per-view on ESPN+. Paramount's deal averages $1.1 billion a year, with smaller payments in the early years and bigger ones later. In return, Paramount gets the full slate: Paramount+ said this year has 12 numbered events and 30 Fight Nights, plus the UFC card on the South Lawn of the White House on June 14, which was headlined by Ilia Topuria against Justin Gaethje for the lightweight title. When the deal was announced in 2025, the companies described 13 numbered events a year.

TKO's Mark Shapiro said at the time that "the pay-per-view model is a thing of the past." UFC events are no longer on ESPN or ESPN+.

Paramount+ plans and prices

Plan	Price	What you get
Essential	$8.99 a month or $89.99 a year	All UFC events, with ads, but no live local CBS station
Premium	$13.99 a month or $139.99 a year	All UFC events, no ads, your live local CBS station and Showtime

Both plans carry every UFC event live and on demand, including the early prelims. Paramount+ says replays go up shortly after each fight ends, and its library has every fight from every numbered event of the 2020s. Prices are before tax.

For most fans Essential is enough. Premium makes sense if you want no ads, or if you also want CBS for other sports, such as the NFL on Sundays.

What a year of UFC costs now

The math changed a lot. At $79.99 per pay-per-view, the pre-2026 price Paramount+ cites, twelve numbered events would cost about $960. A year of Paramount+ Essential is $89.99, and Premium is $139.99, with every Fight Night included as well.

The trade-off is that you now need Paramount+ for every card, Fight Nights included. If you only watch a few numbered events a year, the monthly plan for those months may cost less than the annual one.

Which events are on CBS

Select fights from select numbered events also air live on CBS. That means a CBS station is a free way to see part of some cards with an antenna, and Paramount+ Premium subscribers get those fights through the live CBS feed as well. Paramount decides the CBS events one at a time, so check the CBS listings for a given card. Fight Nights stream on Paramount+.

How to watch on your devices

The Paramount+ app works on smart TVs, phones, tablets, web browsers and streaming devices. Numbered events usually have one title fight, sometimes more, and Fight Nights run most weeks, so a monthly plan covers a busy stretch of the calendar.

UFC schedule through December 2026

These are the events UFC.com lists for the rest of the year, with US dates. Main card start times are converted to Eastern time from UFC.com's listings and can change, so check the event page on fight week.

Date	Event	Venue	Main event
Sat., Oct. 17	UFC Fight Night	Rogers Place, Edmonton	Joaquin Buckley vs. Mike Malott
Sat., Oct. 24	UFC 333	Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi	Alexander Volkanovski vs. Movsar Evloev
Sat., Oct. 31	UFC Fight Night	Meta APEX, Las Vegas	Renato Moicano vs. Tom Nolan
Sat., Nov. 7	UFC Fight Night	Meta APEX, Las Vegas	Gabriel Bonfim vs. Sean Brady
Sat., Nov. 14	UFC 334	Madison Square Garden, New York	Ciryl Gane vs. Josh Hokit
Sat., Nov. 21	UFC Fight Night	ABHA Arena, Doha	Jiri Prochazka vs. Navajo Stirling
Sat., Dec. 12	UFC 335	T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas	Charles Oliveira vs. Diego Lopes

The two numbered events in the next month both carry two title fights. UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi has Volkanovski against Evloev for the featherweight title and Petr Yan against Merab Dvalishvili for the bantamweight title. UFC 334 at Madison Square Garden has Gane against Hokit for the heavyweight title, with Kayla Harrison against Amanda Nunes for the women's bantamweight title on the same card.

The cards abroad start early for US viewers. Based on UFC.com's times, the UFC 333 main card in Abu Dhabi starts at about 2 p.m. ET on Oct. 24, and the Doha card on Nov. 21 at about 1 p.m. ET. The Edmonton card on Oct. 17 starts at about 8 p.m. ET. UFC 334 at Madison Square Garden and UFC 335 in Las Vegas both start their main cards at about 9 p.m. ET.

Outside the US

The Paramount+ deal covers the US only. In other countries the UFC has separate broadcasters, and UFC.com's event pages list the local option.

Other fight sports

Paramount+ is also the US home of Zuffa Boxing, the boxing promotion run by the UFC's parent company. Our boxing guide covers Zuffa, DAZN, Netflix and the pay-per-view fights. CrackStreams lists upcoming UFC cards, other MMA promotions and their start times on its UFC and MMA page.