UFC on the decline or the McGregor effect? The organization has seen a giant drop in PPV sales, has its worst numbers since 2004

The UFC is without any doubt the best MMA organization in the world. But despite the great rise in popularity of combat sports, they have to deal with an unpleasant thing. Because in 2022, PPVs have not been selling as well as expected. The UFC hasn’t done this poorly since 2004.

The year 2022 brought many great tournaments and even more excellent fights in the UFC. We could also see some unexpected downfalls. Kamaru Usman and Israel Adesanya lost their titles, and Jiri Prochazka became the new champion, at least for a few months.

We saw main fights like Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira, Charles Oliveira vs. Islam Makhachev or Nate Diaz vs. Tony Ferguson.

In short, there was a lot to see. But the best MMA organization in the world didn’t do so well in PPV sales.

The best selling tournament was UFC 274, which was dominated by the fight between Charles Oliveira and Justin Gaethje. 400,000 people bought PPVs for it.

Meanwhile, in 2021, two tournaments got over 1.5 million in sales, both featuring Conor McGregor, and along with them, seven galas broke the 500k mark.

There were an identical number of galas with sales over a million and over 500k in 2020. However, in 2019, only one tournament surpassed 500k in sales.

What’s behind the drop?

PPV sales overall have fluctuated in recent years in parallel with when Conor McGregor fought. He took a break from the UFC in 2019 or 2017, and those were his only years since 2015 where the UFC didn’t record over a million sales at any tournament.

The Irishman, by the way, didn’t fight in 2022 due to injury. Now, however, he’s about to make his return and PPV sales can be expected to rise along with it. The legendary Jon Jones is also expected to return to action after a long layoff, and we’ll see some attractive rematches as well.

In addition to that, the constant increase in PPV prices may be a negative factor. And it’s not a small one. The UFC is increasingly the target of criticism because of this. Not only from fans, but also from experts.

However, the fact that the popularity of MMA is stabilizing and the fact that there is no such popular and big personality in the UFC besides McGregor also plays a role. While the organization is trying to find potential replacements, it’s not having an easy time.

Source: MMA Sound, UFC, Tapology