Meltzer: UFC 168 PPV buys ‘probably’ going to be 1.1 million
On his Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer estimated that the UFC 168 PPV buys would end up around the 1.1 million mark, among the best of all time.
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer aired live from Las Vegas on Wednesday, and early on moved from a discussion of WWE PPV buys to UFC PPV buys.
Bryan Alvarez: The UFC buy rate, what’s it looking like for the Silva show? It was not a failure, PPV is not dead when you have the right event.
Dave Meltzer: No no no. It’s between 1 and 1.1 million… The late buys haven’t been counted, and there’s always going to be lag in recording, things like that, so it’s probably going to end up 1.1 million.
Listen to entire interview… (8:30 mark)
This figure would place UFC 168 among the top MMA PPV buys of all time.
#1. UFC 100
July 21, 2009, Las Vegas, Nevada
Buys: 1,600,000
Gate: $5,128,490
Main Events:
UFC Heavyweight championship Unification: Brock Lesnar (champion) vs. Frank Mir (interim champion)
UFC Welterweight championship: Georges St-Pierre (champion) vs. Thiago Alves
Dan Henderson vs. Michael Bisping
#2. UFC 116: Lesnar vs Carwin
July 3, 2010, Las Vegas, Nevada
Buys: 1,116,000
Gate: $2,053,990
Main Event:
UFC Heavyweight championship Unification: Brock Lesnar (champion) vs. Shane Carwin (interim champion)
#3. UFC 158: St-Pierre vs Diaz
March 16, 2013, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Buys: 1,100,000
Gate: $3,710,000
Main Event:
UFC Welterweight championship: Georges St-Pierre (champion) vs. Nick Diaz
UFC 168: Weidman vs. Silva
December 28, 2013, Las Vegas, Nevada
Buys: 1,100,000 (preliminary)
Gate: $6,200,000
Main Events:
UFC Middleweight Championship: Chris Weidman (champion) vs. Anderson Silva
UFC Women’s Bantanmweight championship: Ronda Rousey (champion) vs. Miesha Tate
The UFC 168 figures are all the more impressive given the one-time $5 PPV price increase.