Conor McGregor’s prediction of UFC 264 setting a new view record for the promotion did not come to fruition. But he was damn close.
UFC 264, which took place Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, featured McGregor’s (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier (28-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) in the headlining act. It was a highly anticipated rubber match after each man picked up a knockout win over the other, and it’s clear it has the focus of the sports and entertainment world.
So much so that, according to a report from Sports Business Journal, UFC 264 pulled in 1.8 million pay-per-view buys, with roughly 1.3 million of those coming in domestically though ESPN+ (via Twitter):
UFC ratings notes:
PPV buys came over just under 1.8 million globally. Dana White said as much at the post event press conference.
I'm told that 500,000 of those buys came from international, which means ESPN+ logged around 1.3 million buys.— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) July 13, 2021
UFC ratings notes:
PPV buys came over just under 1.8 million globally. Dana White said as much at the post event press conference.
I’m told that 500,000 of those buys came from international, which means ESPN+ logged around 1.3 million buys.
McGregor’s presence at UFC 264, which saw him suffer a first-round TKO loss to Poirier after he could not continue beyond the opening five minutes due to a broken leg, made it a star-studded event.
A plethora of celebrities were in attendance to watch McGregor compete, and with 20,062 in the crowd overall, the organization pulled in an announced $15,759,800 at the live gate.
It was a tremendously successful night by all accounts, and Bloody Elbow’s John Nash, who covers the business side of the sport, indicated the UFC brass came away counting the cash (via Twitter):
In the US that's a mil over their ESPN+ threshold, so an extra $35-40m on top of their ESPN guarantee. UK PPVs lower the inter'll average but that would still probably add another $15m there. Throw in gate & other non contracted revenues & UFC 264 probably did almost $100m total. https://t.co/rcQ7MLenNO
— John S. Nash (@heynottheface) July 13, 2021
In the US that’s a mil over their ESPN+ threshold, so an extra $35-40m on top of their ESPN guarantee. UK PPVs lower the inter’ll average but that would still probably add another $15m there. Throw in gate & other non contracted revenues & UFC 264 probably did almost $100m total.
McGregor guessed prior to UFC 264 that he thought the event could surpass the pay-per-view record of 2.4 million for his fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 in October 2018. It didn’t quite get there, but 1.8 million would make it the highest selling event in UFC history, moving just ahead of the reported 1.6 million for the Poirier vs. McGregor rematch at UFC 257 in January.
