McGregor-Mayweather breaks the all-time PPV record
Dana White says that last weekend’s super-fight has generated a record-breaking 6.5 million pay-per-view buys, a figure which would dwarf the previous record of 4.6 million, set by Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, by almost 2 million. This is despite the three million people who illegally streamed the fight. The final figure could be higher, as it doesn’t include sales outside the United States. It will also mean that McGregor holds the pay-per-view record for both boxing and mixed martial arts. The 6.5 million figure also beats the cumulative total for the top five UFC pay-per-views in the company’s history, and is five times larger than any WWE PPV event ever. The fight will go down in history as one of the single most profitable sports events ever.
Wow. In this Instagram story post by Urijah Faber, Dana White says #MayweatherMcGregor did 6.5M PPV buys. pic.twitter.com/JBJGNUDy7q
— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) August 30, 2017
Three million people illegally streamed McGregor-Mayweather fight
Almost 3 million people watched Saturday’s McGregor-Mayweather fight using illegal streams, according to web security company, Irdeto. Viewers used online links to get around paying the $99.95 charged in the US for the high-definition pay-per-view (£19.95 in the UK). 239 illegal streams of the fight were watched by 2,930,598 people. Had they all paid, even at a lower rate, the illegal audiences would have brought in at least $60 million more.