The Athletic reports that UFC 253 this past Saturday drew 700,000 worldwide buys on ESPN+. The main event featured Israel Adesanya as he took on Paulo Costa.
The 700K buys ties it with UFC 249 this past May as Justin Gaethje fought Tony Ferguson in the main event. UFC 251 is this year’s reported high with 1.3 million PPV buys.
Post-pandemic stoppage UFC PPV buys
UFC 249 700,000
UFC 250 Not reported
UFC 251 1.3M
UFC 252 500,000
UFC 253 700,000
Payout Perspective:
The reports were likely obtained from the same source – the UFC. So the numbers might be inflated but the 700K buy rate blows out of the water what I believed to be a PPV that would grab less than 500K. Even if the buy rate was just over 500K in the U.S., it’s a good showing for Adesanya who pulled a Puma sponsorship for the Oceanic region. He is a personality and someone that can be a marketable figure.
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