The estimated pay-per-view numbers are in for UFC 262.
Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand reported that the May 15th show, which featured Charles Oliveira’s dramatic knockout of Michael Chandler to become the new lightweight champion, drew at least 300,000 domestic (meaning US-only) pay-per-view buys. No international numbers were released.
This is obviously not on the level of UFC 257: McGregor vs. Poirier 2, UFC 261: Usman vs. Masvidal 2, or UFC 259: Adesanya vs. Blachowicz, but it has to be considered a success given neither Oliveira nor Chandler had headlined a pay-per-view before. The card also lost the co-main event between Nate Diaz and Leon Edwards to a Diaz injury, and Nate’s status as a draw surely would’ve led to even better numbers had the fight remained in place.
PPV numbers were not released for UFC 260: Miocic vs. Ngannou 2 or UFC 258: Usman vs. Burns, but for the most part business has been booming for the UFC particularly during this pandemic. Last month marked the return of a full house of fans to UFC events, and UFC 262 exceeded $4 million in live gate money.
The next pay-per-view is UFC 263 on June 12th, which features Israel Adesanya defending his middleweight title against Marvin Vettori. Flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo’s rematch with Brandon Moreno is the co-main event, and Diaz vs. Edwards has been rescheduled for this card. Given the success of Adesanya’s last two pay-per-views this figures to also generate an impressive buyrate.
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