Mayweather-McGregor ppv box office hit

LAS VEGAS – Conor McGregor’s improbable challenge of Floyd Mayweather Jr. was a hit at the box office and could end up the biggest pay-per-view ever, with an estimated 50 million people watching in the United States alone.

Preliminary figures released by Showtime PPV on Friday showed the fight was tracking in the “mid to high” 4 million range, threatening the 4.6 million record set by Mayweather’s 2015 fight with Manny Pacquiao. Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza said the number will likely rise some as more firm figures come in.

“It’s a little soon to be predicting a record,” said Espinoza, who heads sports for Showtime. “But the record is definitely within reach.”

Estimates vary, but if an average of 10 people watched each pay-per-view the total audience for Saturday’s fight in the US could reach 50 million people, or nearly one in six Americans.

“I’d absolutely call this a complete success,” Espinoza said. “This was a fight that had massive expectations in both the fight itself and the business results. It lived up to those expectations in every respect.”

At $99.95 a buy, the pay-perview generated at least $450 million in revenue on domestic television alone, money from which each fighter gets an undisclosed percentage. Mayweather estimated after the fight he would make $300-350 million, while McGregor said his take would be around $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-perview 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.