Showtime: Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor did 4.3 million PPV buys in North America

“The Money Fight” featuring Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor generated 4.3 million pay-per-view buys in North America, Showtime announced today.

The premium cable channel said the tally includes numbers from traditional PPV providers on television and online portals such as Showtime’s app and UFC.tv in the U.S. and Canada.

The blockbuster event, which took place Aug. 26 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, also generated over $600 million in revenue between ticket sales, sponsorship and international distribution.

While the blockbuster event failed to equal the North American record set by the 2015 “Fight of the Century” between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao at 4.6 million buys, Showtime touted its relationship with Mayweather, which led to the three highest grossing pay-per-view events in history: Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, Mayweather vs. McGregor, and Mayweather vs. ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.

“The Showtime PPV totals for Mayweather vs. McGregor far exceed the now third best event in history – nearly doubling the 2.48 million buys for Oscar De La Hoya vs. Mayweather in 2007,” Showtime said in its press release.

The 4.3 million figure comes two months after UFC President Dana White declared Mayweather vs. McGregor did 6.7 million PPV buys worldwide. White told The Wall Street Journal the event  set a new benchmark for PPV sales in several countries.

“We broke the record in Australia,” White said. “We broke the record in the U.K. at 4 in the morning, broke the record in Spain, Canada, and the United States.”

Showtime Networks executive Stephen Espinoza initially cast a more conservative estimate of the event’s drawing power, at least domestically. In September, he said it was “trending” to break the record and added the number was in the “mid-to-high” four million range for purchases in the U.S. and Canada.

“We would love to break that record, but even if we come up just short, the event was still a massive success financially and by other measurements,” Espinoza said.

But by any measure, “The Money Fight” was a massive success, even in the face of widespread outages on television providers and online digital networks who were overwhelmed by traffic on fight night.

As much cash as the event generated, the fight wasn’t very competitive. After a strong start from McGregor (21-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC, 0-1 boxing), Mayweather (50-0 boxing) took over with a pressing attack of body shots in the fourth round. Mayweather came on strong as McGregor faded, leading to a flurry of unanswered head shots that prompted a referee stoppage at the 1:05 mark of the 10th round.

Since the fight, speculation of an immediate rematch has been stoked by both fighters. McGregor claimed Mayweather promised another go-around in the UFC’s octagon, while Mayweather hinted he’d been offered a multi-fight deal in the MMA promotion worth $1 billion.

Here is Showtime’s full release on the May-Mac numbers:

SHOWTIME Sports confirmed today that the SHOWTIME PPV presentation of Mayweather vs. McGregor on August 26, 2017 generated 4.3 million pay-per-view buys in North America. This includes traditional television distribution and online portals such as the new SHOWTIME PPV app and SHOWTIMEPPV.com as well as UFC.TV in U.S. and Canada.

Mayweather vs. McGregor, a four-fight SHOWTIME PPV boxing event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, officially stands as the second largest pay-per-view event of all time behind Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, which set the North American pay-per-view mark at 4.6 million buys in 2015. The SHOWTIME PPV totals for Mayweather vs. McGregor far exceed the now third best event in history—nearly doubling the 2.48 million buys for Oscar De La Hoya vs. Mayweather in 2007.

The total global revenue from the event including ticket sales, sponsorship and international distribution exceeds $600 million, which—along with Mayweather vs. Pacquiao— is among the largest for a single-day sporting event of all time. Mayweather and SHOWTIME PPV now account for the three highest grossing pay-per-view events in television history with the third-ranked event Mayweather vs. Canelo from 2013.

For complete coverage of “The Money Fight,” check out the MMA Events section of the site.