Report | UFC 264 is the second biggest PPV in promotional history

According to a new report from the Sports Business Journal, last Saturday’s UFC 264 is officially the second biggest PPV in UFC history.

John Ourand of the SBJ shared the numbers on his social media page, noting that UFC 264 sold 1.8 million pay-per-views around the world, including 1.3 million in the United States.

UFC ratings notes:
PPV buys came over just under 1.8 million globally. Dana White said as much at the post event press conference.
I'm told that 500,000 of those buys came from international, which means ESPN+ logged around 1.3 million buys.

— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) July 13, 2021

UFC ratings notes: PPV buys came over just under 1.8 million globally. Dana White said as much at the post event press conference. I’m told that 500,000 of those buys came from international, which means ESPN+ logged around 1.3 million buys.

The UFC pay-per-view record for the biggest-selling card of all time also features McGregor when he took on Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 in October 2018. That event sold 2.4 million pay-per-views, so while UFC 264 was a successful event for the promotion, it still wasn’t anywhere close to what UFC 264 did. Still, it was a great night and the UFC nearly broke two million buys, which is that big number that the promotion is shooting for.

In addition to the pay-per-view doing big numbers, the preliminary card had great ratings as well on ESPN, with the preliminary card headlined by Carlos Condit and Max Griffin. The UFC typically puts on a strong undercard during its pay-per-views as an enticement for fans to purchase the card. Between the Condit vs. Griffin fight and the Niko Price vs. Michel Pereira bout before it, which was an absolute war, there was a great lead-in to the UFC 264 pay-per-view card. Overall, it was an extremely successful night for the UFC and for ESPN.

ESPN averaged 1.615 million viewers for the prelim fights (8-10pm). That’s 11% better than ESPN’s most recent UFC PPV Prelim with Conor McGregor in January (1.454 million viewers). It was ESPN's most viewed program of the day on Saturday.

— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) July 13, 2021

ESPN’s early UFC prelim coverage (6-8pm): 830,000.

— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) July 13, 2021

ESPN averaged 1.615 million viewers for the prelim fights (8-10pm). That’s 11% better than ESPN’s most recent UFC PPV Prelim with Conor McGregor in January (1.454 million viewers). It was ESPN’s most viewed program of the day on Saturday. ESPN’s early UFC prelim coverage (6-8pm): 830,000.

Did you purchase UFC 264?