Report: Wilder vs Fury 2 ppv falls under break-even numbers
While the pay-per-view buys for Wilder vs Fury 2 were impressive, they still, unfortunately, fell under projected and expected numbers.
Last weekend’s heavyweight boxing title fight between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury became one of the biggest combat sports events of the year so far. After that their first bout ended in a controversial draw, the rematch was highly anticipated. Fury ended up putting on a clinic, dominating Wilder from the opening bell and finishing him in the seventh round.
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In terms of finances, the results for Wilder vs Fury 2 was somewhat of a mixed bag. According to Mike Coppinger of The Athletic, Wilder vs Fury 2 was the best-performing heavyweight title fight since Mike Tyson vs Lennow Lewis in 2002.
“Sources: The rematch between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury generated in the neighborhood of approximately 800,000 to 850,000 pay-per-view buys in North America. Best performance – by far – for a heavyweight title since Tyson-Lewis in 2002. Wilder-Fury 1 sold around 325K buys,” Coppinger reported.
While this is certainly encouraging, it doesn’t show the full picture. According to Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated and DAZN, the total buys fell under the break-even numbers.
“This is more or less what I’m hearing, too. Digital buys – ESPN-plus, Fox Sports App – overperformed. Traditional cable, DTV did not. Privately, officials hoped for 1 to 1.1 million, effectively break-even numbers,” Mannix reported.
According to other reports, illegal streaming impacted the pay-per-view numbers. Though it’s not certain to what extent it did so.
It seems that while numbers were good, in some respects they simply weren’t good enough.
