Report: UFC 216 estimated at more than 200,000 buys

It looks as if UFC 216 fared better than initial indicators had suggested.

When MMA Fighting’s Dave Meltzer tracked early pay-per-view buys for this month’s UFC 216 show in Las Vegas, he put the projection at roughly 120,000 buys, or 20% more than September’s UFC 215, which featured a main event between Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko. Now that a couple of weeks have passed, it looks as if 216 did better than initial post-fight estimators suggested.

According to Meltzer’s latest info from his Wrestling Observer newsletter: (Subscription only)

The UFC 216 show on 10/7 headlined by Tony Ferguson vs. Kevin Lee and Demetrious Johnson vs. Ray Borg, actually did far better than early indications and is estimated to have easily topped 200,000 buys, or about double what the previous show headlined by Amanda Nunes vs. Valentina Shevchenko (what Johnson vs. Borg was originally on) did.

It’s still not been a great year for the UFC in terms of buyrates, as they will most likely go the whole year without breaking the 1 million mark for a single event. At least this uptick for 216 will mean that they’ve avoided a stretch of having three out of their last four major cards doing under 200,000 purchases. UFC 213 reportedly pulled in just 150,000 buys back in July, but UFC 214: Cormier vs. Jones 2 provided a huge boost at 850,000.

The UFC’s next pay-per-view is on November 4th, as Michael Bisping and Georges St-Pierre headline a tripleheader of title fights at UFC 217 in New York City. UFC 218 features Max Holloway vs. Frankie Edgar in the December 2nd main event, while UFC 219 on December 30th does not yet have an official headliner.

It looks as if UFC 216 fared better than initial indicators had suggested.

When MMA Fighting’s Dave Meltzer tracked early pay-per-view buys for this month’s UFC 216 show in Las Vegas, he put the projection at roughly 120,000 buys, or 20% more than September’s UFC 215, which featured a main event between Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko. Now that a couple of weeks have passed, it looks as if 216 did better than initial post-fight estimators suggested.

According to Meltzer’s latest info from his Wrestling Observer newsletter: (Subscription only)

The UFC 216 show on 10/7 headlined by Tony Ferguson vs. Kevin Lee and Demetrious Johnson vs. Ray Borg, actually did far better than early indications and is estimated to have easily topped 200,000 buys, or about double what the previous show headlined by Amanda Nunes vs. Valentina Shevchenko (what Johnson vs. Borg was originally on) did.

It’s still not been a great year for the UFC in terms of buyrates, as they will most likely go the whole year without breaking the 1 million mark for a single event. At least this uptick for 216 will mean that they’ve avoided a stretch of having three out of their last four major cards doing under 200,000 purchases. UFC 213 reportedly pulled in just 150,000 buys back in July, but UFC 214: Cormier vs. Jones 2 provided a huge boost at 850,000.

The UFC’s next pay-per-view is on November 4th, as Michael Bisping and Georges St-Pierre headline a tripleheader of title fights at UFC 217 in New York City. UFC 218 features Max Holloway vs. Frankie Edgar in the December 2nd main event, while UFC 219 on December 30th does not yet have an official headliner.