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UFC 207 Pulls In 1.1 Million Pay-Per-View Buys
UFC 207 scores big to end 2016 with 1.1 million pay-per-view buys. This is the 15th time a UFC pay-per-view passed the one million buyrate mark.
2016 ended with a bang after an incredible year. Dave Meltzer of MMA Fighting reported that UFC 207 had a buyrate of 1.1 million. This is the fifth pay-per-view to surpass the one million buyrate mark in 2016 and the 15th time doing so in the promotion’s history.
Despite Ronda Rousey not doing any media or promotion for her return after being away for 13 months, the event was still a success when it came to buys. Plenty witnessed Women’s Bantamweight Champion Amanda Nunes defeat Rousey in her return in 48 seconds. Casual fans learned of a new star in Cody Garbrandt, who defeated Dominick Cruz for the Bantamweight Title, going unranked to winning a title in 2016.
UFC 196, 200, 202, and 205 were the four other pay-per-views that hit the one million mark this past year. UFC 202 is atop the list for most buys with 1.65 million. UFC 196 takes second at 1.317 million. UFC 100 and 205 tie for third at 1.3 million.
UFC 207 ties 193 for seventh most pay-per-view buys at 1.1 million, both events featuring Rousey. Rousey lost her title to Holly Holm on the aforementioned pay-per-view in November of 2015.
Out of the 15 pay-per-views that have done more than one million buys, seven of them occurred in the last 14 months. In order, UFC 193, 194, 196, 200, 202, 205, and 207, seven of the 15 most recent pay-per-views, have hit one million.
Conor McGregor headlined four of those events and has headlined four of the top five pay-per-views in the promotion’s history. His top two most viewed bouts were both against Nate Diaz. Both Rousey and Nunes headlined a pair of pay-per-views that are in the top 15. Rousey was in the main event of UFC 193 and 207 while Nunes was featured in the main event of UFC 200 and 207.
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It is also worth noting that the promotion re-aired a condensed version of UFC 206 on Fox, which dominated ratings on Christmas Eve with 4.70 million viewers. Despite the original main event, Daniel Cormier vs. Anthony Johnson for the light heavyweight title being pulled due to Cormier’s injury, Cub Swanson and Doo Ho Choi put together a Fight of the Year candidate in a back and forth brawl. Max Holloway defeated Anthony Pettis in the main event to become the interim featherweight champion.
The UFC grabbed a lot more viewers as the promotion soared the past 14 months. The UFC front office knows that 2017 will have big shoes to fill. With Jon Jones inactive and McGregor and Rousey seeming to be on a break, it will be interesting to see what the UFC will try to do this year to keep the high trend of pay-per-view buys for 2017.
It’s worth noting that the last time the UFC ran a pay-per-view on a Friday, it was headlined by Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem, and pulled in 600,000 buys.
UFC pay-per-view numbers courtesy of Tapology
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