PPV Stats

[Eff Pandas]

Was dorking out on some PPV stats the other day for sh^ts & giggles. Came up with some top ten lists that might be worth a boxing history thread.

Most Buys Overall for Pay Per View Fights
US PPV/UK PPV/Closed Circuit
(included 11 here cuz I know some people will see the YouTube fight as blasphemy, but technically it was a PPV fight):

1)Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao (2015)
5,772,667 [HBO/Showtime 4,600,000/Sky Box Office 1,000,000/CC 172,667]

2)Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor (2017)
5,174,000 [Showtime 4,300,000/Sky Box Office 874,000/CC ???]

3)KSI vs Logan Paul (2018)
5,000,000 [YouTube]

4)Ray Leonard vs Marvin Hagler (1987)
3,150,000 [CC 3,000,000/HBO, 150,000]

5)Lennox Lewis vs Mike Tyson (2002)
2,720,000 [HBO/Showtime 1,970,000/Sky Box Office 750,000]

6)Evander Holyfield vs Mike Tyson, II (1997)
2,660,000 [Showtime 1,990,000/Sky Box Office 550,000/CC 120,000]

7)Joe Frazier vs Muhammad Ali, I (1971)
2,590,000 [CC]

8)Floyd Mayweather vs Oscar De La Hoya (2007)
2,450,000 [HBO 2,400,000/CC 50,000]

9)Floyd Mayweather vs Saul Alvarez (2013)
2,200,000 [Showtime]

10)Floyd Mayweather vs Ricky Hatton (2007)
2,070,000 [Sky Box Office 1,150,000/HBO 920,000]

11)Mike Tyson vs Frank Bruno, II (1996)
2,060,000 [Showtime 1,400,000/Sky Box Office 660,000]



Most Revenue Overall for Pay Per View Fights

1)Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao (2015) $500M
1)Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor (2017) $500M
3)Evander Holyfield vs Mike Tyson, II (1997) $180M
4)Floyd Mayweather vs Oscar De La Hoya (2007) $165M
5)Floyd Mayweather vs Saul Alvarez (2013) $150M
6)Floyd Mayweather vs Ricky Hatton (2007) $134M
7)Saul Alvarez vs Gennady Golovkin, II (2018) $121M
8)Lennox Lewis vs Mike Tyson (2002) $112M
9)Mike Tyson vs Peter McNeeley (1995) $110M
10)Saul Alvarez vs Gennady Golovkin, I (2017) $100M



Most US Home PPV Buys

1)Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao (2015) 4.6M
2)Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor (2017) 4.3M
3)Floyd Mayweather vs Oscar De La Hoya (2007) 2.4M
4)Floyd Mayweather vs Saul Alvarez (2013) 2.2M
5)Evander Holyfield vs Mike Tyson, II (1997) 1.99M
6)Lennox Lewis vs Mike Tyson (2002) 1.97M
7)Mike Tyson vs Peter McNeeley (1995) 1.6M
7)Evander Holyfield vs Mike Tyson, I (1996) 1.6M
9)Floyd Mayweather vs Miguel Cotto (2012) 1.5M
10)Evander Holyfield vs George Foreman (1991) 1.4M
10)Mike Tyson vs Frank Bruno, II (1996) 1.4M
10)Felix Trinidad vs Oscar De La Hoya (1999) 1.4M
10)Floyd Mayweather vs Shane Mosley (2010) 1.4M
10)Manny Pacquiao vs Juan Manuel Marquez, III (2011) 1.4M



Most UK Home PPV Buys

1)Anthony Joshua vs Wladimir Klitschko (2017) 1.5M
2)Anthony Joshua vs Joseph Parker (2018) 1.4M
3)Floyd Mayweather vs Ricky Hatton (2007) 1.15M
4)Wladimir Klitschko vs David Haye (2011) 1.14M
5)Anthony Joshua vs Alexander Povetkin (2018) 1.10M
6)Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao (2015) 1.0M
7)Manny Pacquiao vs Ricky Hatton (2009) 900k
8)Tony Bellew vs David Haye, I (2017) 890k
9)Anthony Joshua vs Carlos Takam (2017) 887k
10)Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor (2017) 874k



Most PPV Buys for Boxer's
HBO PPV, Showtime PPV, UK PPV Platforms & Closed Circuit

1. Floyd Mayweather 27,292,000 Buys [1.7M Avg] (16 fights, 16-0, 4KO's)

2. Manny Pacquiao 21,309,000 Buys [926K Avg] (23 fights, 19-4, 7KO's)

3. Mike Tyson 17,700,000 Buys [1.1M Avg] (15 fights, 9-5, 7KO's, 1 NC)

4. Oscar De La Hoya 14,140,000 Buys [744K Avg] (19 fights, 13-6, 7KO's)

5. Evander Holyfield 13,950,000 Buys [820K Avg] (17 fights, 8-7-1, 4KO's, 1 NC)

6. Saul Alvarez 8,050,000 Buys [894K Avg] (9 fights, 7-1-1, 3KO's)

7. Anthony Joshua 6,866,000 Buys [858K Avg] (8 fights, 8-0, 7KO's)

8. Lennox Lewis 6,690,000 Buys [955K Avg] (7 fights, 6-0-1, 4KO's)

9. Ray Leonard 6,334,000 Buys [1.2M Avg] (5 fights, 3-2, 2KO's)

10. Miguel Cotto 5,815,000 Buys [581K Avg] (10 fights, 6-4, 4KO's)

All numbers are up to date as of Oct. 18, 2018 & are the best exact figures or estimates I could find.

[OctoberRed]

From what I read in business journals, KSI vs. Logan did over 700K buys, nowhere near 5 million.

[Eff Pandas]

From what I read in business journals, KSI vs. Logan did over 700K buys, nowhere near 5 million.

I didn't deep dive that number cuz it does seem disputable on both ends, but I guess I should've.

I do know that 770k buys is based on 770k people being the peak number watching live which is a flawed way to count how many buys it does cuz from my understanding that isn't taking into account after the live event views. That YouTube business model isn't just about live viewing like normal PPV is & the official views of the PPV itself was 5.3M. That said 5.3M views is also a flawed number cuz I'm pretty sure thats counting multiple views by people who just paid the $10 once like other videos count views.

I only noted the 5M number cuz that does seem to be the most reported & quoted number. And that was how I tried to do the revenue numbers to cuz those are much harder numbers to search & I'm not even sure one can deep dive those very well with the info that gets released to the public.

I guess it might be more fair to split the difference between 770k & 5.3M & go with 3M & it'd be #5 instead of #3. But I'll probably just keep the top ten as listed til someone posts something more concrete either way that makes sense.

Or I might just keep is easier on myself & just flip the top ten list to a professional boxing only ppv list as I was originally thinking of doing, but personally I found the popularity of these weirdo Youtube personalities fighting interesting & thought it technically more correct to add it to the list vs leave it out. If it did in fact just do 770k buys or just not 2M+ to be on this list then it shouldn't be on the list, but I've yet to see definite information it did only 770k & the 5M is the most quoted info out there.

[Anthony342]

Was closed circuit always around? I heard for a while, that wasn't a big thing. I know Wrestlemania even used to do it before there was a WWE network. I'm guessing it made a comeback with the popularity of Mayweather's fights?

[Eff Pandas]

Was closed circuit always around? I heard for a while, that wasn't a big thing. I know Wrestlemania even used to do it before there was a WWE network.

Yea it goes back to one of Joe Louis' last fights (vs Lee Savold) in 1951. That was the first live closed circuit fight. Up til then & going way back to the damn near the bare knuckle days they just taped the big fights & then showed them in theaters after the fact which people paid to watch.

Some interesting info here about the past of paying to watch fights.

The June 1951 Joe Louis-Lee Savold bout was the first fight on a theater-television network in the United States. The first drive-in theater showing of a live fight was the Marciano-Walcott heavyweight title fight in September 1952. All of Marciano's title fights were on theater telecasts in the 1950s.

Most of Floyd Patterson's title fights were on theater-TV, including his three title fights with Ingemar Johansson and his two with Sonny Liston during the 1950s and 1960s. Ali won the title from Liston in a 1964 closed-circuit theater telecast.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...=.ec705f522abc

I'm guessing it made a comeback with the popularity of Mayweather's fights?

It reached its peak in the Ali days in the 70's (I'm actually considering adding some Ali CC numbers on the top ten list if I can better confirm some estimates) from its 50's days. I think the 80's effed it up with a lack of stars/bad ass big men post-Ali & with more fights on free TV, HBO becoming a force & PPV becoming a thing.

So its more like a dying means to watch a fight thats just been more & more regulated to just the biggest fights in the last few decades than its comeback cuz it used to do amazing numbers (500k-3M+ vs it maxing out around 170k today) & you can find articles that talk about PPV killing Closed Circuit like you'll find articles today talking about Streaming killing PPV lol.

[Zaroku]

Nice breakdown, thanks!

[MasterPlan]

Who the fck is Logan Paul. Is that the dude who played the guy who lived in that van on Step by Step?

[Anthony342]

Yea it goes back to one of Joe Louis' last fights (vs Lee Savold) in 1951. That was the first live closed circuit fight. Up til then & going way back to the damn near the bare knuckle days they just taped the big fights & then showed them in theaters after the fact which people paid to watch.

Some interesting info here about the past of paying to watch fights.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...=.ec705f522abc



It reached its peak in the Ali days in the 70's (I'm actually considering adding some Ali CC numbers on the top ten list if I can better confirm some estimates) from its 50's days. I think the 80's effed it up with a lack of stars/bad ass big men post-Ali & with more fights on free TV, HBO becoming a force & PPV becoming a thing.

So its more like a dying means to watch a fight thats just been more & more regulated to just the biggest fights in the last few decades than its comeback cuz it used to do amazing numbers (500k-3M+ vs it maxing out around 170k today) & you can find articles that talk about PPV killing Closed Circuit like you'll find articles today talking about Streaming killing PPV lol.

Sweet, thanks for the breakdown. Ever see a boxing match or wrestling event live or on closed circuit?

[Eff Pandas]

Sweet, thanks for the breakdown. Ever see a boxing match or wrestling event live or on closed circuit?

I've seen a ton of fights live. Amateur & pro. Used to go to the Michigan Golden Gloves every year back in the day.

And yea I've seen a few closed circuit fights, but only just recently. I watched Floyd vs McConor, GGG vs Canelo I & II at closed circuit locations.

Never been to a wrestling event or watched on closed circuit. I was super into wrestling as a kid, but once I figured out it wasn't real I was out shortly after so my interest in that as a hardcore fan was short & when I was really young.

Randomly finding out that wrestling wasn't real probably took my childhood away lmfao. There is that gradual sh^t when you kid of finding out all this fantasy sh^t like the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus & the Tooth Fairy isn't real & I think figuring out wrestling wasn't real put the first hair on my balls.

[OctoberRed]

Who the fck is Logan Paul. Is that the dude who played the guy who lived in that van on Step by Step?

Some wacky Youtube guy