Report: UFC 269 draws “slightly more than” 500K PPV buys

The Sports Business Journal’s Adam Stern reports that UFC 269 drew “slightly more than” 500,000 PPV buys on ESPN+.

.@ESPNPlus sold slightly more than 500,000 PPV units for #UFC269 last month, per SBJ sources. pic.twitter.com/EE5Yuqe7UE

— Adam Stern (@A_S12) January 20, 2022

UFC 269 took place Saturday, December 11^th at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.  The PPV featured Charles Oliveira’s first lightweight title defense against Dustin Poirier and Juliana Pena’s stunning upset of Amanda Nunes to win the women’s Bantamweight title. 

2021 UFC PPVs

UFC 269         500,000 PPV buys

UFC 268         700,000 PPV buys

UFC 264         1.8M PPV buys (1.3M domestic)

UFC 263         600,000 PPV buys

UFC 262         300,000 PPV buys

UFC 261         700,000 PPV buys

UFC 259         800,000 PPV buys

UFC 257         1.5M PPV buys

Payout Perspective:

The 500,000 PPV buys is a great number considering the top of the card.  While Poirier is a fighter that grabs some interest, the jury is still out on Charles Oliveira as a fighter that a card can be marketed around.  The Juliana Pena victory will be interesting to see how they package her and see if the UFC can improve on marketing her better than Nunes.