Mayweather vs McGregor: a Pay-per-View Smash

Conor McGregor’s improbable challenge of Floyd Mayweather Jr. was a box-office smash.

There between 4 million and 5 million pay-per-view sales. An estimated 50 million people watched in the United States alone.

According to preliminary numbers compiled by Showtime PPV, the fight threatens the 4.6 million benchmark set by Mayweather’s 2015 fight with Manny Pacquiao. At $99.95 a buy, the fight is tracking to generate more than $450 million in television revenue, much of which will be shared by the two fighters.

Estimates vary but if an average of 10 people watched each pay-per-view Saturday night the total audience would be in the 50 million range — or about 1 in 6 Americans.

Mayweather estimated after the fight he would make $300-$350 million. McGregor said his take would be about $100 million.

Though the fight suffered some at the box office because of extremely high ticket prices, it hit the kind of numbers on pay-per-view that promoters were hoping for. When added all together the fight could generate some $600 million in total revenue, which would be along the lines of the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.

Mayweather stopped McGregor in the 10th round, the first time he has had a real stoppage in nearly a decade. But McGregor’s performance also won some applause, as he boxed better in his first boxing match as a pro than many thought he would.

Assuming the preliminary estimates hold up, Mayweather will have participated in the top four pay-per-view events of all time. His fight with Oscar De La Hoya in 2007 sold 2.4 million pay-per-views, and his 2014 fight with Canelo Alvarez sold 2.2 million.

Espinoza said he should know by next week whether the fight will end up No. 1 or No. 2 on the all-time list. But he said the early estimates were lower than what the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight ended up to be, and that this would likely go higher, too.

“There could be a good amount of growth between the initial numbers and where we eventually end up,” Espinoza said.

The pay-per-view numbers include streaming on the Showtime and UFC apps as well as cable and satellite television buys. The fight was held up briefly because of some streaming issues, but Espinoza said reports of widespread problems with the online feed were overblown.

“We were particularly pleased with the digital streaming aspect,” he said. “It was our first venture going direct to consumers on Showtime and we were thrilled. We generated over four times the buys we had expected online.”

There were also reports of several million illegal streams of the fight and Espinoza said Showtime’s anti-piracy technicians saw more illegal streams than any previous fight. But he said the nature of the fight meant groups of people gathered to watch it, and that most bought it legitimately to be guaranteed the best possible feed.

“We knew we had a massive event with huge interest,” he said. “And we knew a huge amount of people were going to be watching, including some who watched illegally.”

Mayweather improved to 50-0 in what he said was his last fight, while McGregor is expected to return to UFC following his only pro fight.