Report: PPV Buys For UFC 254 Much Lower Than Expected

UFC 254 will likely remain a historic event, as it featured Khabib Nurmagomedov moving his record to 29-0 and retiring. But, according to a new report, the October 24th card’s pay-per-view buy totals fell well short of what was expected.

PPV numbers much lower than expected

The recent card featured the lightweight champ Nurmagomedov fighting for the first time in 2020, against the ridiculously, dangerous Justin Gaethje. Due to the abilities and platforms of both fighters, there seemed to be considerable buzz for the contest throughout the MMA world.

So much so, days out from the card, Dana White reported that UFC 254 was trending to be the biggest card in the promotion’s history.

But, according to a new report from MMA Fighting, which cites the Sports Business-Journalas the source, UFC 254 is believed to have sold around 675,000 pay-per-view buys in total (around 500,00 in the U.S.).

If accurate, that would make UFC 254 the fifth most-watched UFC PPV card in 2020. For context, it’s believed the most-watched, PPV card in 2020 was UFC 251, which it was reported sold around 1.3 million PPV buys. 

That card featured Jorge Masvidal facing welterweight champ, Kamaru Usman in the headliner.

Reaction

It should be noted that UFC 254 took place during the day (here in North America), which likely didn’t help the pay-per-view sales. Further, it’s White’s job to drum interest for a card, so there could have been some promotional spin in his pre-fight statements.

But, all that aside, these figures are somewhat surprising, given how much hype there seemed to be tied to the card.