UFC 194 Prelims on FS1 scored an all-time high on the network for PPV prelims with 1,931,000 viewers. The prelims preceded the UFC 194 PPV.
The final fight on the prelims featured Urijah Faber taking on Frankie Saenz in a very good matchup. The average for 2015 PPV Prelims was 1,069,000 with 7 of the 13 cards averaging over 1 million viewers.
Payout Perspective:
UFC 189 featuring Conor McGregor did not provide a reliable indicator for the PPV buy rate. However, the 1.9 million viewers for UFC 194’s prelims may reflect the heavy interest in this PPV. While no numbers have been rumored or released, it’s clear that the prelim rating may be a good sign for PPV numbers.
Very impressive.
Mayweather drew over 4 million. As a matte of fact he drew more viewers in one night than the whole UFC did this year.
Overall boxing this year sold more than MMA did.
Let’s see how the PPV does, but my boss and his family (his in-laws were spending the weekend) got the fight, and they don’t know the first thing about the sport. I didn’t even realize he knew who McGregor was. I’m guessing they can name two fighters: Ronday Rousey and Connor McGregor.
@Diego – Good thing Conor made the cover for the video game. Frankly, if you were to ask random person on the street they’d come up with those two names.
The crazy part is he is just now getting mainstream attention. Higher ups at FS1 and ESPN have been gushing over him since the win. Which means his next fight will blow away what ever 194 did with just MMA and Irish fans. Many of these mainstream fans are coming off a Rousey event that didn’t disappoint in entertainment and drama. They will during jump on the next fighter that transcends the sport.
BrainSmasher on December 15th, 2015 7:51 PM
“The crazy part is he is just now getting mainstream attention. Higher ups at FS1 and ESPN have been gushing over him since the win. Which means his next fight will blow away what ever 194 did with just MMA and Irish fans. Many of these mainstream fans are coming off a Rousey event that didn’t disappoint in entertainment and drama. They will during jump on the next fighter that transcends the sport.”
–I would bet his next fight doesn’t do as well simply for the fact that no one knows anyone else in those divisions. The Aldo-McGregor aspect was played up for a good while, and they milked it by pulling the bait n switch the first time and letting it marinate.
Aldo not being beaten in 10 years and undefeated in the UFC played a big part of this. People wont buy McGregor ppvs for too long if there is no one for him to face.
I cant name you one other guy out there besides Edgar or Mendes again. So I can guarantee you no casual will know either.
Frankie Edgar is as big of a star in the US as Aldo, he also might fight Cerrone who is a bigger more marketable fighter than both especially if it’s McGregor going for his second belt it would make it even bigger.
BJ Penn stock rose when he fought GSP the second time and it was GSP biggest fight at that point as well.
“wont buy McGregor ppvs for too long if there is no one for him to face.”
Right, because he sold 825k buys at his very first ppv against Mendes a true superstar that everyone knew. Haha. McGregor could fight anyone at this point and it is a guarantee it hovers around 1m buys. He is a ppv superstar. This drives boxing fans crazy.
“People wont buy McGregor ppvs for too long if there is no one for him to face.”
Isn’t that what people said about essentially all of Rousey’s fights?
They pulled a bait n switch, thats why, and it almost backfired when Mcgregor was getting rag dolled by Mendes.
Mayweather-pacquiao wouldve still sold 2M ppvs if Pacquiao pulled out and Timothy Bradley stepped in.
2016 will be full of rematches, in what is going to be probably the last meaningful year of UFCs existence.
After Cain-Werdum II, Mcgregan-Aldo II, Rousey-Holm II, Jones-Cormier II, what is there?
No one cares after that.
Canelo-GGG will be the highest selling ppv next year
UFC prelims beat PBC on NBC.
UFC Prelims on FS1, cable network did 1.9 mill
PBC on network TV NBC did 1.8 mill.
Ouch
What is this a contest?
Pbc on nbc did 4.2M in March.
UFC will never hit 4M in anything again.
Mayweather-Bradley would have done less than McGregor-Mendes.
“After Cain-Werdum II, Mcgregan-Aldo II, Rousey-Holm II, Jones-Cormier II, what is there?”
HAHAHAHA!!! Those are 3 huge fights. And McGregor/Rousey will both likely fight twice where they’ve both proven they can do big ppv numbers without a big named opponent regardless
And boxing has……ZERO!!! HAHAHAHA!!
“Canelo-GGG will be the highest selling ppv next year”
First off, that fight is unlikely to go down. Canelo is a coward and will continue to avoid Golovkin. Second, even if it does go down, there is NO WAY that beats UFC 200. Guaranteed 2m ppv buys provided that Holm-Rousey or McGregor-Aldo is the headliner. GGG-Canelo would do slightly over a million at best.
McGregor no.1 ppv star in combat sports! Rousey no.2! Lots of big fights coming up for the UFC…..not so much for boxing!! HAHAHA!!!
“UFC prelims beat PBC on NBC.
UFC Prelims on FS1, cable network did 1.9 mill
PBC on network TV NBC did 1.8 mill.
Ouch”
HAHAHA!!
Everything you said was hear say.
And Canelo-GGG has pretty much been finalized. They will each fight an interim bout and then meet up in the fall.
Conor and Rouseys last ppv still have no numbers.
You actually tried to claim Mcgregor was the biggest draw back in July. You remember when you claimed he did 1M-1.5M and it ended being 800k, only a mere two months after 4.6M happened.
You did the same thing with ufc 190.
Guess what Canelo outsold both, made more $ than both, had a bigger gate than both, made more revenue than both.
Canelo also gets more viewers globally than these two could ever imagine.
They did a poll the other day asking was UFC 194 worth the money. About 20k votes and 70% saying No.
Thats not a good thing.
UFC 200 will sell good,just cuz its 200 and they’re gonna load it up. But what about the other 12? They’re gonna sell very bad.
Another thing is Rousey claims if she loses to Holm again she’ll retire.
There goes your draw.
Enjoy UFC 200. They won’t live to see 300.
Name me the great boxing up and comers? I’ll wait.
Meanwhile, the UFC has Jon Jones (eventually heading to heavyweight), Luke Rockhold (potential heartthrob with a fun karate style), Conor taking on two weights and heading to movies, Rose Namajunas, Paige VanZant, Sage Northcutt, Holly Holm, Miesha Tate, Aljamin Sterling, Uriah Hall, Henry Cejudo, Joanna Champion, Claudia Gadelha, Yair Rodriguez, Thomas Almeida, Rory MacDonald, the probably of a still young GSP, T.J. Dillashaw, Dominick Cruz, and ‘ol Urijah in heartthrob territory (I mention stuff like that because after Ronda more women are interested). It’s one thing to thing MMA will die because it’s too violent for the mainstream…it’s another to not see the house fire your sport is currently engulfed in.
Boxing’s been around 100 years, MMA only 20. And boxing styles don’t change much, while MMA is radically different than even three years ago, and I’d argue has changed again after Saturday nite. You could’ve easily sounded the death bell for MMA pre-Ronda, Conor, and Luke and post Silva and GSP…but you never saw Conor and co. coming. After all this exposure and Conor and Ronda increasing the pay, this sport may attract better athletes now.
Actually here are the PBC network primetime ratings
Dan Rafael @danrafaelespn Dec 15
Sat’s #PBConNBC card averaged 1.8M viewers, fewest of 5 in prime time. Each drew less than previous: 3.374M, 2.882M, 2.327M, 2.179M, 1.8M
17 retweets 21 likes
I’m not even saying some of those numbers are bad, they arent, that 1.8 is low but rest are ok and in line with UFC events.
But after that first show all the trolls on this site said PBC was bigger than UFC and would blow away UFC.
Saying that Garcia fight would do even bigger etc when reality is PBC is in serious trouble.
First one peaked at 4.2m.
PBC will be on FOX in January for Garcia-Guerrero.
More channels than the UFC.
“And Canelo-GGG has pretty much been finalized. They will each fight an interim bout and then meet up in the fall.”
Until they start training for the fight in camp, then it has been finalized. Until then, don’t assume anything. This is boxing after all.
“Conor and Rouseys last ppv still have no numbers.”
According to everyone that follows the sport and sources this information, Rousey does and McGregor’s is inevitable.
“You actually tried to claim Mcgregor was the biggest draw back in July. You remember when you claimed he did 1M-1.5M and it ended being 800k, only a mere two months after 4.6M happened.
You did the same thing with ufc 190.”
Are you accusing others of giving out inaccurate information for a ppv? Literally every number you claim is false and completely fabricated. The numbers for both of those events weren’t Meltzer’s. 193 was.
“Guess what Canelo outsold both, made more $ than both, had a bigger gate than both, made more revenue than both.”
UFC 193 and 194 did more revenue than Canelo. Which proves even with 2 ppv stars in boxing, they can’t outsell the top two stars in mma. HAHAHA!!
“They did a poll the other day asking was UFC 194 worth the money. About 20k votes and 70% saying No.”
*Poll was conducted by The Greatest with a sample size of 1 person, him.
HAHAHAHAHA!!
There was a poll conducted asking people if Mayweather-Pacquaio as to whether it was worth the money, 99.9% said no.
“Thats not a good thing.
UFC 200 will sell good,just cuz its 200 and they’re gonna load it up. But what about the other 12? They’re gonna sell very bad.”
Kind of like your predictions for this year where the opposite turned out to be true.
“Another thing is Rousey claims if she loses to Holm again she’ll retire.
There goes your draw.
Enjoy UFC 200. They won’t live to see 300.”
People say things often after a loss they do not mean. If she did lose, and she saw another opportunity, she would come back. Either way, it wouldn’t matter, the sport is too big for them to lose draws. One goes away, another pops up. This is mma, not boxing where it takes a decade to grow a star and won’t have any in the future.
HAHAHAHAHA!!
“First one peaked at 4.2m.”
The first UFC on FOX peaked at 8.8m.
Domination!!
“PBC will be on FOX in January for Garcia-Guerrero.
More channels than the UFC.”
PBC will be of the air by the end of 2016 though. Less channels than WSOF.
HAHAHAHA!!!
Mike Tyson vs Buster Douglas is FOXs most watched telecast ever.
Dominated
Your defense is always antiquated. Typically decades ago. Haha.
Oh yeah, and Meltzer’s saying UFC 194 went over 1m. Quick, now spin that to your own formula.
And 193 is definitely over 1m as well.
Soon as mmapayout posts them, we will except them.
The reason we cant except them is because every time they claim “trending at 1.5m ppvs” it ends up being an 800k ppv.
Id believe they did around 1M, they had some hype goin into it.
But UFC 195 and UFC 196 are gonna do Low numbers.
UFC 195 Lawler-Condit? Wmma doesn’t sell outside Rousey. Probably does 200k.
UFC 196 Werdum-Cain II. First one did 300k, this one does the same.
Haha. Further denial. Why would it make any difference? They are getting their information from Dave Meltzer. He isn’t claiming anything trending at this point. He is flat out stating 193 went over 1m.
“Id believe they did around 1M, they had some hype goin into it.”
HAHAHA!! Acceptance. So you are acknowledging that McGregor is a bigger star than Canelo. Yeah, I agree. Way bigger ppv numbers.
Lawler-Condit does 300k buys, Werdum-Cain probably does around 300k, which is 300k more ppv buys than any other hw boxer has sold in about a decade in N.America. Hahahahaha!!! You act like boxing promotions can hit 300k buys with lower profile stars. They can’t!
How could Conor be a bigger star if for one he hasnt sold as nearly many ppvs as Canelo.
Canelo has 4 ppvs. 2.2M, 350k, 300k, 900K.
Conor was on 3 ppvs. 205k, 800k, TBA.
Last year McGregor made $75k a fight. At the same time Canelo made $5M a fight.
Canelo made $8M-$10M last fight, Conor made around $1M.
Its been about 5 years and 10 fights since Canelo hasnt made at least $1M a fight.
His fights draw monster ratings in Mexico and worldwide.
Conor doesnt.
Meltzer saying
UFC 193 1.09 mill PPV buys from his sources, says sources from Ronda’s camp say 1.22 mill.
Says 194 saying outside sources say its 8-10 percent higher than 193 but other sources say its down 5 percent from 193.
So his early estimates are 1.05 mill to 1.25 mill. Says its either gonna be second biggest PPV of all time or at worst the 4th biggest UFC PPV of all time.
Canelo has 3 ppvs. 350k, 300k, 900K.
McGregor has 2: 825k, 1m+
“Last year McGregor made $75k a fight. At the same time Canelo made $5M a fight.
Canelo made $8M-$10M last fight, Conor made around $1M.”
More lies.
“Its been about 5 years and 10 fights since Canelo hasnt made at least $1M a fight.
His fights draw monster ratings in Mexico and worldwide.
Conor doesnt.”
On top of more lies.
McGregor is a massive international star with a huge fan base in the UK. Canelo’s only fanbase outside of the US is in Mexico.
McGregor no. 1 combat sports star!!!!!!!!!!!