The welterweight world title unification boxing clash between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas earlier this month has smashed the US record for pay-per-view buys.
Rival operators Showtime and HBO, who co-produced coverage of the event, reported 4.4 million buys as viewers tuned in to watch Mayweather preserve his undefeated record with a unanimous decision victory on May 2.
This dwarfs the previous best figure of 2.48 million buys from when Mayweather met Oscar De La Hoya in May 2007, while PPV sales will generate revenue of $400m (€358.8m) on account of a high-definition price of $99. A record of approximately $40m was also generated from international television rights across 175 countries.
Meanwhile, the Nevada State Athletic Commission said the sale of 16,219 tickets for Mayweather-Pacquiao at the MGM Grand Garden Arena generated gate receipts of $72.2m, shattering the previous gate record of $20m from Mayweather’s fight against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez at the same venue in September 2013. That fight’s $150m PPV revenue record is another financial milestone to have been dwarfed by Mayweather-Pacquiao.
"To do almost twice what the prior record was and nearly triple the previous high water mark for revenue is really something," Stephen Espinoza, executive vice-president and general manager of Showtime Sports told the Associated Press news agency. "I thought we would be doing very well if we got to three million buys, which would have broken the record by 20 per cent."
CBS-owned Showtime and Time Warner’s HBO will split 7.5 per cent of the total PPV revenue, with the majority being distributed between the fighters. Bob Arum, the head of the Top Rank promotional agency that represents Pacquiao, told ESPN.com that he felt the initial PPV projections were “conservative” and that they would surpass 4.5 million buys.
Alvarez was in action himself over the weekend and the Mexican’s third-round knockout of James Kirkland in Houston drew an average of 2.1 million viewers to HBO – the broadcaster’s highest rating for a fight in nine years.