The Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand reports that UFC 268 drew 700,000 PPV buys on ESPN+. The event featured Kamaru Usman taking on Colby Covington and occurred on the same night as the Canelo Alvarez-Caleb Plant fight.
The event, which took place at Madison Square Garden in New York, continues the success of the UFC this year. Even with stiff competition, it was clear that the UFC’s marketing, promotion and brand success is PPV-proof even with an alternative available. So intriguing was the Canelo fight that Dana White was caught ringside watching the Canel-Plant fight.
Based on the figure reported by Ourand, UFC 268 drew roughly a gross of $49 million alone from ESPN+. Considering the gate was reported at $9.8 million, the UFC made nearly $60 million alone without including international PPV, media rights, sponsorships and other ancillary revenue. Its not known how many new subscribers UFC 268 generated as purchasers have to subscribe to ESPN+.
This is the second consecutive PPV in which Usman, as the headliner, drew 700,000 PPV buys. Of course, the undercard has been strong with women’s title fights as co-headliners. At UFC 261, Rose Namajunas dethroned Zhang Weili and Valentina Shevchenko defeated Jessica Andrade.
The event highlights the fact that the UFC is having its biggest year thus far and is pleasing Disney+ for driving subscription rates of ESPN+. While we do not know exact information, one might surmise it is the driving force behind the digital platform.
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