Dave Meltzer, from MMAFighting.com, reports the latest estimated PPV numbers from the last two events, UFC 170: Hendricks vs Lawler and UFC 171: Jones vs Teixeira.
According to Meltzer, UFC 171 drew an estimated 300K pay-per-view buys while UFC 172, which featured arguably UFC’s second biggest active star in Jon Jones, did an estimated 350,000 buys. Meltzer talks about some of the issues the UFC is now encountering with their current crop of stars
With Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva out of action, it figured to be a lean pay-per-view year, a business with results that vary wildly based largely on the main event attraction.
For example, in 2013, a successful year which topped 6 million buys according to industry estimates, UFC had two shows that did less than 200,000, and two others that topped 900,000. One was headlined by St-Pierre, and the other by Silva.
The problem is, unless you are St-Pierre, or someone like Brock Lesnar or Chuck Liddell in their primes, the other part of the rule is that it takes two to tango.
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Still, after four events this year, UFC is at an estimated 1.23 million buys, which isn’t that much more than UFC 168, the last monster show, did on its own.
The MMAPayout Blue Book has now been updated with the latest numbers.
Payout Perspective:
The PPV numbers have to be a bit sobering for the UFC and the new crop of MMA stars. Jon Jones and Ronda Rousey, who are both currently the UFC’s biggest stars but are not as likable as GSP and Anderson Silva, failed to draw more than 350K PPV buys in their latest efforts. Another UFC emerging star, Welterweight champion Johny Hendricks, only drew 300K buys against Robbie Lawler. All three numbers hover around what the UFC once called their PPV low-end baseline. Times have changed quite bit since the new low-end baseline lies at around 140K-150K PPV buys.
Relief won’t be coming anytime soon either, as UFC 173 and UFC 174 will most likely hover around the 200K buy range. It won’t be until UFC 175, when the UFC stacks their card with Weidman vs Machida, Rousey vs Davis, and Sonnen vs Wandy, until they have their next shot at finally overtaking the now elusive 400K PPV buy line. Just last year, the UFC average PPV buyrate per event was 467K.
The UFC is trying to mitigate this problem hoping to finish 2014 on a positive and carry some momentum into 2015. At the moment, they are working diligently on signing Gina Carano, Holly Holm, and keeping Cyborg as an option for Ronda Rousey. They are also trying to push Anderson Silva for a miraculous return by the end of the year. Cain Velasquez should also be back to headline a big Mexico debut but Cain has never done great in the PPV department.
After four PPV events in 2014, the UFC has an estimated 1.22M PPV’s sold, which is only slightly ahead of what UFC 168 did last year on it’s own or what Lesnar used to average in his UFC prime. At this pace, 2014 is on track to finish with the least number of PPV buys since 2007, or the Early TUF years.
How is Gina Carano supposed to boost PPV sales?
Oh yeah… UFC fans lack important chromosomes.
This is the reason why the UFC is desperately pushing for an end-of-the-year Silva return — It’s not going to happen no matter how much slimy Dana flaps his yap. No wonder many fighters don’t start making any PPV money unless the even hits more than 500k buys — now impossible to get. As far as Gina Carano goers, she has been out for 5 freaking years, what a joke that female division is, pure freakshow with a one-trick pony as the champ.
Sampson quit reading about ufc posts your a piss rod. Im sure im not the only who gets annoyed by your stupid simple minded comments.
How can anyone trust the numbers Metzler gives? His numbers are at times 200k below everyone else’s. 3 other reliable sources reported that UFC 168 did 1.2 mil so he claims it did 1 mil. The same sources reported UFC 158 did 1.1 mil yet he claims it only did 900k. The guy is a bullshitter.
Meltzer also OVERestimated many UFC PPV numbers in the past.
I recall a few times by 300,000 PLUS
I wasn’t aware there was a source for PPV numbers besides Meltzer.
De laa, Sampson:
That’s because people report different things and most readers don’t bother to make the distinction. There is a different between reporting a worldwide PPV number and a North American PPV number as well. Some get their “bloated” numbers from the UFC when the PPV number has a bigger focus, those same “sources” don’t get or report numbers for the smaller events. Meltzer’s numbers are estimates, they are not meant to be exact to the digit. It’s a way to gauge the success of a certain PPV.
I have spoken to Dave several times and we’ve gone through the process enough for myself and others within the industry to use his estimates/numbers. In the PPV industry, they are the best that we have. As long as you remember they are estimates and as long as you understand that throughout time, they may change to become accurate, there should be no problem using this to gauge the success of an event.
this has to be troubling for the ufc, also im sure the fighters arent happy, so now that they are not selling over 500k ppvs they do not even get a ppv bonus.
what is truly a joke is the fact , that the ufc will not even make the best fights out there. for the pure fact of milking a fighter for every ppv sale they can get.
why hasnt pettis vs aldo been made. gsp vs silva never happened, silva vs jones never happened.
and now they have ronda ” there biggest star ever” fighting people no one cares about.
not to mention over exposure, as a long time fan i can honestly say i do not hardly watch mma any more, the magic of big cards were truly the best fightes in the world fought each other, are over. and i am saddened at this.
UFC doesn’t have much momentum with their current champs. It’s hard to see them cracking 500k buys in 2014 at this pace. People have also lost interest in the UFC. It was a cool fad but now the UFC should work on retaining existing customers.
It certainly feels like the sport has stopped growing (in North America) and has now become over-saturated. I would love to see what the break-even looks like for Zuffa, but you have to figure that anything over 200-250k is a money maker for them. And they have the $100M from Fox that must certainly help.
hey diego they are also paying down that massive amount of debt they have to .
These numbers are mediocre. The UFC will be around in ten years but its pretty clear it will not be this MASSIVE sport Dana White keeps saying it will be. When your undisputed Champ cant clear 500k thats telling.
Amazing how many boxing fanboys there are on an mma website.