UFC 263 reportedly does 500,000 pay-per-view buys in the United States

The pay-per-view buyrate for UFC 263 is in.

According to John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal, UFC 263 which went down last Saturday in Arizona sold 500,000 PPVs on ESPN+ in the United States. It’s reported to have done over 600,000 globally.

At first look, 500k would be a disappointment due to how many stars were on this card. In the main event, Israel Adesanya defended his middleweight title against Marvin Vettori. Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno also had their rematch from one of the best fights of 2020. Nate Diaz also made his highly-anticipated return which likely added some buys to the card.

However, it should be noted that since the UFC moved to ESPN+ the buyrate for PPVs has been done. UFC 261, which was a stacked card with three title fights including Usman vs. Masvidal 2 did a reported 700k. UFC 262, meanwhile, only did 300k.

Image Credit: UFC

In the main event of UFC 263, Israel Adesanya dominated Marvin Vettori over five rounds to defend his middleweight title. It was a solid performance from the champ after losing his first MMA fight back at UFC 259 as he suffered a decision loss to Jan Blachowicz for the light heavyweight title.

Other notable results from the card saw Brandon Moreno submit Deiveson Figueiredo to become the new flyweight champ. Leon Edwards, meanwhile, dominated Nate Diaz for 24 minutes, but in the final minute, Diaz rocked Edwards and nearly finished him which stole the story of their UFC 263 fight. Ultimately, it was Edwards who got the decision win.

The next pay-per-view is a stacked UFC 264 card that sees Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor have their trilogy. Stephen Thompson battles Gilbert Burns, Kevin Lee takes on Sean Brady and Sean O’Malley also returns. It’s likely that card will outsell UFC 263 and could very well hit the million mark.

Are you surprised to see UFC 236 only sell 500k in the United States?