UFC pay-per-view price increasing to $74.99, starting with UFC 270

It’s a new year, which means another rate hike for UFC fans who want to purchase pay-per-views on ESPN+.

Newsday’s Mark LaMonica was first to report that starting with UFC 270 on January 22nd, pay-per-views purchased on the streaming service (which is available only in the United States) will now cost $74.99, a $5 increase from last year, which was a $5 increase from the year prior.

Those who purchase the ESPN+ PPV package will also experience a price increase. It’ll now cost consumers $99.98 for one UFC PPV and a year’s subscription to ESPN+, up $10 from the 2020 cost.

After lowering the PPV price to $59.99 in 2019, ESPN has steadily increased UFC pay-per-view prices over the past three years (including this one). Just a few months ago the monthly rate to subscribe to ESPN+ was raised by a dollar to $6.99. So if you’re the type to have a monthly ESPN+ subscription for all UFC content and you purchase every UFC pay-per-view, your year-end total will run close to if not over $1,000 depending on any applicable taxes.

Here’s a historical timeline of PPV costs for UFC shows since 2005:

The UFC has been a major factor in driving ESPN+ subscriptions, which sits at just over 17 million as of last November. It was another wildly successful year for the UFC on pay-per-view in 2021, with Dana White claiming the promotion did about 8.6 million buys — a total he hopes to have in one night.

For what it’s worth, $75 is more expensive than the recent Terence Crawford vs. Shawn Porter pay-per-view, also on ESPN+. It’s also $5 cheaper than the trilogy between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder. Whatever the case, it looks as if UFC and boxing pay-per-views now will both be regularly north of $70 whether you like it or not.