McGregor vs Sir Rone did 1 Million PPV Buys

1 million buys = 80million payday?
 
Its not the ESPN purchase transition that made the difference here.

I live in New York City, its a big market but fairly easy to see how popular a sporting event is by walking down the street.

Masvidal -vs- Diaz had more attendance and buzz. I was able to easily get into a popular bar to see Conor fight Cerrone. When Khabib fought Conor, it was pandemonium at the sports bars, we had to make a reservation in advance and show up early.

Its a combination of a few things most likely:

1) Conor's brand is somewhat diminished after getting smashed so badly by Khabib

2) Cerrone wasn't perceived as a meaningful opponent

3) Khabib is legitimately a draw and perceived as the best

4) The rest of the card was atrocious, minor factor but still there

Interesting to see how this shakes out down the road.
 
ESPN+ went from 6.6M subscribers on 12/31/19 to 7.6M as of last Monday. They credited the 1M increase to McGregor. Most core UFC fans already had ESPN+ so UFC246 in whole did more than 1M.
 
JSN said:
if true, ouch. His last couple have fights on normal PPV have been in the 2.5M range.
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Right, but that’s far from his normal average. Those higher numbers were credit to his opponents as well (Floyd & Khabib). Nobody else can bring that close to 50/50 split with Conor. Not masvidal, or any of his other matchups. That’s why they want to do the rematch with Khabib so bad or Floyd wants to go at it again. Diaz can too, but not the same as the first 2.
 
TheNinja said:
I find it pretty hard to believe that 500,000 people who didn't already have ESPN+ decided to sign up for it for the McGregor PPV. Most UFC fans or fans or people who want ESPN+ very likely already have it.
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I know a ton of people who have nothing to do with MMA who were watching the fights. It was all over their social media feeds how they were watching, and I never see them watch any other fights. So there's more viewers than normal.

Additionally, but streaming was a fucking nightmare that night. I know a few people who stream every card who ended up buying the card because they couldn't get a non-lagging stream (which I myself can confirm was horrible), and didn't want to miss the fight. So there's even more viewers than normal.

Lastly, the bars were absolutely fucking packed. We tried 3 places that not only hit their seating capacity, but hit their fire law capacity from people crowding in to stand. They literally couldn't let more people in. People were definitely very interested in seeing this.

There's things you can shit on Conor for, but shitting on his drawing power is dumb. This has been abundantly proven time and time again.
 
JSN said:
if true, ouch. His last couple have fights on normal PPV have been in the 2.5M range.
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Lmao a million ppv buys being an 'ouch' just proves how much you expect from him.
 
markg171 said:
I know a ton of people who have nothing to do with MMA who were watching the fights. It was all over their social media feeds how they were watching, and I never see them watch any other fights. So there's more viewers than normal.

Additionally, but streaming was a fucking nightmare that night. I know a few people who stream every card who ended up buying the card because they couldn't get a non-lagging stream (which I myself can confirm was horrible), and didn't want to miss the fight. So there's even more viewers than normal.

Lastly, the bars were absolutely fucking packed. We tried 3 places that not only hit their seating capacity, but hit their fire law capacity from people crowding in to stand. They literally couldn't let more people in. People were definitely very interested in seeing this.

There's things you can shit on Conor for, but shitting on his drawing power is dumb. This has been abundantly proven time and time again.
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Dang! Sounds busy out there! I don't like Conor for certain things but I never doubt or knock his drawing power. People come out of the woodwork to watch him fight.

I just wonder how many people actually subscribe to and will keep ESPN+ b/c of this. Most people aren't going to pay $6 a month just so they can order a Conor PPV once in a while. At least that's my thoughts. But I guess even if ESPN keeps 25% of them they still gained a ton of customers.
 
Lol @ half a mill subscribers added
Yea for one event, they will never use the platform again and will not be paying members

Nice spin, makes me totally believe the 1m ppvs, especially since they said it did like 1.5 not even 2 weeks ago...
 
uwho22 said:
Not true. This event was exclusively on PPV in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Ireland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. (Source: https://www.ufc.com/news/how-to-watch-ufc-246-conor-mcgregor-donald-cowboy-cerrone)

Not to mention FightPass PPV's are worldwide.
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International PPV revenue has always been peanuts. We have actual hard numbers from 2015, and it was less than 15% of total PPV revenue. Under WME management, they've impressively bulked up the media rights overseas and that has been an enormous windfall, however international PPV isn't a meaningful amount.
 
JSN said:
if true, ouch. His last couple have fights on normal PPV have been in the 2.5M range.
Click to expand...
No they weren't. The Khabib fight did close to that, but it was a huge fight and Khabib definitely was a big factor in those buys. His next highest PPV rate was 1.6m with the Diaz rematch. From the Aldo fight onwards he was bringing in 1.3m PPVs, on average.

Which is still incredible, but 2.5m is almost unheard off for any PPV event outside the obvious (Mac/Mayweather, Pac/Mayweather).
 
rjmbrd said:
International PPV revenue has always been peanuts. We have actual hard numbers from 2015, and it was less than 15% of total PPV revenue. Under WME management, they've impressively bulked up the media rights overseas and that has been an enormous windfall, however international PPV isn't a meaningful amount.
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15% of 1 million is 150,000 buys. Also, back in 2015 UFC events weren't exclusively on PPV in the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia.

The 15% has surely increased in the past 5 years. UFC 246 probably did AT LEAST 300k buys internationally.
 
uwho22 said:
15% of 1 million is 150,000 buys. Also, back in 2015 UFC events weren't exclusively on PPV in the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia.
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Yes, so as I stated, 15% is generally peanuts - in other words, 85% is domestic.

The 15% has surely increased in the past 5 years. UFC 246 probably did AT LEAST 300k buys internationally.
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Either provide a source or admit you just literally made this up.

Cheers
 
rjmbrd said:
Yes, so as I stated, 15% is generally peanuts - in other words, 85% is domestic.



Either provide a source or admit you just literally made this up.
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It's an estimate from industry insiders. Obviously adding new PPV markets such as the UK is going to increase international PPV purchases. Not to mention the UFC and Conor McGregor specifically have grown in popularity worldwide since 2015. 300k PPV buys is not "peanuts".

Souces:
https://www.mmafighting.com/2020/2/...treaming-pay-per-view-to-hit-one-million-buys
"McGregor vs. Cerrone generated $70 million just in streaming revenue, as well as an $11 million live gate at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. That wouldn’t include revenue from television and streaming pay-per-view outside the U.S., which could hit $20 million."
 
They would of done better if they had a few other interesting matchups on the main card.
 
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