McGregor vs Sir Rone did 1 Million PPV Buys

[chukutee]

Arise, Sir Rone

 

[rjmbrd]

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."

Right, so to make sure we are concrete, these are literally made up numbers from people taking a guess at it.

Not from insiders who work within the media companies that hold rights for PPV, but reporters of MMA blogs making a YOLO guesstimate.

The blog by Meltzer is hilarious for two reasons, one he doesn't cite any source (or even his reasoning) that it could hit "as high as 20 million" other then to just type it out. Second, even when he DID have insider info from satellite providers, we would later find out from financial documents provided by Zuffa that he was notably wrong on multiple big events.

Thank you for playing though.

Cheers!

 

[uwho22]

Right, so to make sure we are concrete, these are literally made up numbers from people taking a guess at it.

Not from insiders who work within the media companies that hold rights for PPV, but reporters of MMA blogs making a YOLO guesstimate.

The blog by Meltzer is hilarious for two reasons, one he doesn't cite any source (or even his reasoning) that it could hit "as high as 20 million" other then to just type it out. Second, even when he DID have insider info from satellite providers, we would later find out from financial documents provided by Zuffa that he was notably wrong on multiple big events.

Thank you for playing though.

Cheers!

Clearly no one knows the actual numbers since the UFC do not make them public. What I am saying is if we take the numbers we DO know (UFC 246 sold 1m in the USA and in 2015 15% of PPV sales came from Australia and Canada) we can first assume UFC 246 sold 176k PPV's in Australia and Canada.

Then when accounting for new PPV markets that UFC 246 sold in (England, Ireland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) and taking into account Conor McGregor's growth in popularity (especially the UK and Ireland market where Mayweather McGregor sold 874,000 PPVs) it is reasonable to assume that UFC 246 sold around 300k PPVs internationally.

As I said no one knows the real numbers, these are just educated estimates.

 

[LetThemBleed]

Do Conor fanboys like yourself think he’s the GOAT just because he pulls in a mass amount of casuals to buy his PPV? Do you think he’s a better fighter?

Well he’s certainly the GOAT when it comes to MMA PPV buys. I notice you didn’t answer whether you though Khabib Poirier did big numbers.

 

[Moro]

Well he’s certainly the GOAT when it comes to MMA PPV buys. I notice you didn’t answer whether you though Khabib Poirier did big numbers.

No point, I know one thing though is they’re better fighters, which is what the UFC is supposed to be about.

 

[LetThemBleed]

No point, I know one thing though is they’re better fighters, which is what the UFC is supposed to be about.

They? Khabib sure hard to argue that but Poirier? That’s a stretch at best. As for my original question I’d bet McGregor Cerrone did better numbers than Khabib Poirier.

 

[brisbane]

Khabib Poirier did 1.5 million and 20 million on Russian cable

 

[TankvsNelmark]

This might of been answered already but if he did 1 million on espn + the total number is way higher if you add all the country's like here in Canada still where it's standard ppv

 

[Moro]

They? Khabib sure hard to argue that but Poirier? That’s a stretch at best. As for my original question I’d bet McGregor Cerrone did better numbers than Khabib Poirier.

Came 2nd best apparently nothing concrete, just “equivalent” which could literally mean anything. Didn’t out-do 229 though where Khabib headlined, Khabib bigger star confirmed. Better fighter by far anyways.

 

[Moro]

They? Khabib sure hard to argue that but Poirier? That’s a stretch at best. As for my original question I’d bet McGregor Cerrone did better numbers than Khabib Poirier.

Also I watch the fights, not the PPV numbers, that’s for financial fans and I’m a fight fan, big difference.

 

[LetThemBleed]

Came 2nd best apparently nothing concrete, just “equivalent” which could literally mean anything. Didn’t out-do 229 though where Khabib headlined, Khabib bigger star confirmed. Better fighter by far anyways.

Not even the most delusional Khabib fanboy could genuinely believe Khabib is a bigger star but I guess you’re free to labour under any such delusion as you please.

 

[LostMyBlackBelt]

The card was garbage, the fight was garbage. I felt ripped off streaming it. Who pays 60 bucks for that garbage still?

 

[rjmbrd]

Clearly no one knows the actual numbers since the UFC do not make them public. What I am saying is if we take the numbers we DO know (UFC 246 sold 1m in the USA and in 2015 15% of PPV sales came from Australia and Canada) we can first assume UFC 246 sold 176k PPV's in Australia and Canada.

Then when accounting for new PPV markets that UFC 246 sold in (England, Ireland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) and taking into account Conor McGregor's growth in popularity (especially the UK and Ireland market where Mayweather McGregor sold 874,000 PPVs) it is reasonable to assume that UFC 246 sold around 300k PPVs internationally.

As I said no one knows the real numbers, these are just educated estimates.

Id be willing to bet a substantial amount of money Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and New Zealand make up such a cartoonishly low number of total buys that its embarrassing to list them off.

2015 was a banner year for the UFC, look at a graph of total buys by year. The business of UFC overall was booming then with multiple big selling stars in different divisions. Keep in mind the 15% aggregate is representative of a banner year in a banner period which has since past.

There is absolutely no reason in the world to just YOLO make up a number that this card sold well intentionally until someone with actual information on it comments. Meltzer is commenting only in passing and citing no source - and he was demonstrably wrong when Zuffa financials came out - and that is when he had actual contacts in the satellite business.

Any other questions?

 

[kimo666]

Why would you pay $60 for a ppv in the UK when you can pay less than that for an entire sports channel that broadcasts UFC events?

In the uk you pay for the channel but some events are Ppv. They’ve only just started doing this. It’s an extra £20/£25 i think

 

[cmw43]

One day free trials, not subscribers

The wording used was 1 million purchases.

 

[cmw43]

The card was garbage, the fight was garbage. I felt ripped off streaming it. Who pays 60 bucks for that garbage still?

Most people are only paying for the headliner, boxing style.

 

[cmw43]

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.

The Khabib fight had that insane build up with the Artem drama, the coach attack and the press conferences with Conor drunk on Proper 12, and Conor was coming off the 4million+ selling Mayweather fight so he was always going to do huge numbers for his mma return.

I don't think Khabib is the draw people on here make him out to be, especially in the US.

A Khabib VS Conor rematch would still be huge though.

 

[NicholasJBasile]

These numbers are actually far superior than what I thought they'd be. I was thinking it'd hit between 600-700K due to the ESPN Plus paywall and the fighters not having much animosity (which I heavily prefer). It's nice to see some solid numbers where both combatants were generally respectful.

 

[Mga223]

They? Khabib sure hard to argue that but Poirier? That’s a stretch at best. As for my original question I’d bet McGregor Cerrone did better numbers than Khabib Poirier.

Well khabib vs priorer was free in Russia whi h is a big market for him and its saying it got 26 million viewers there.

PPV buys surely as I believe the timing of the event wasn't great for everyone around the world due to it being in Dubai or whatever.

Conor is 100% the better draw but I don't think he has that star power like before to carry a card by himself for huge buys (closer to 2 million). @

 

[Pilo]

i feel like they made that PPV purposely shitty as a test of Conor's real drawing power. on all the other PPVs Conor did big numbers on he wasn't the only star on the card, and in fact, were on pretty stacked cards.

now they have a better ballpark estimation on what Conor's true drawing power is with no other stars on the card.

That's a very interesting theory, actually. Hadn't thought of that, but it would make sense in a way, as this is also useful data when negotiating with McGregor for his PPV cut, or his actual fight purse in future fights...Or, perhaps, they wanted to see if the boxing PPV model (cards filled with absolute unknowns with a big main event) works with MMA events as well.

What makes me skeptical about this theory that you're bringing up, though, is that I somehow doubt the UFC would risk limiting or decreasing its PPV buys to make that kind of experiment, especially since it would have been a huge opportunity to make a stacked card and actually break PPV records.

McGregor did say that he'd love to fight more often from now on, but again this guy makes penny stocks investments feel very predictable and not volatile at all in comparison. It just feels weird that the UFC wouldn't "milk the cow" as much as it can while they finally have it in the barn.

Regardless of what their intentions were, Jesus fucking Christ did that fight card suck aids-infected balls