Pay-per-view
Pay-per-view is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast.
Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guide, an automated telephone system, or through a live customer service representative. There has been an increasing number of PPVs distributed via streaming video online, either alongside or in lieu of carriage through television providers. In 2012, the popular video sharing platform YouTube began to allow partners to host live PPV events on the platform.
Events distributed through PPV typically include boxing, mixed martial arts, professional wrestling, and concerts. In the past, PPV was often used to distribute telecasts of feature films, as well as adult content such as pornographic films, but the growth of digital cable and streaming media caused these uses to be subsumed by video on demand systems instead, leaving PPV to focus primarily on live event programs and combat sports.
History
The earliest form of pay-per-view was closed-circuit television, also known as theatre television, where professional boxing telecasts were broadcast live to a select number of venues, where viewers paid for tickets to watch the fight live. The first fight with a closed-circuit telecast was Joe Louis vs. [Jersey Joe Walcott II] in 1948. Closed-circuit telecasts peaked in popularity with Muhammad Ali in the 1960s and 1970s, with "The Rumble in the Jungle" fight drawing 50million buys worldwide in 1974, and the "Thrilla in Manila" drawing 100million buys worldwide in 1975. Closed-circuit television was gradually replaced by pay-per-view home television in the 1980s and 1990s. Though in modern times it is still sometimes offered by bars, restaurants and other commercial establishments.Experimental PPV systems in the 1950s and 1960s
The Zenith Phonevision system became the first home pay-per-view system to be tested in the United States. Developed in 1951, it used telephone lines to take and receive orders, as well as to descramble a television broadcast signal. The field tests conducted for Phonevision lasted for 90 days and were tested in Chicago, Illinois. The system used IBM punch cards to descramble a signal broadcast during the broadcast station's "off-time". Both systems showed promise, but the Federal Communications Commission denied them the permits to operate.Telemeter, an experimental coin-operated pay-per-view service, had a trial run in Los Angeles in 1952 and Palm Springs, California from 1953 to 1954, featuring first-run movies and live sporting events, until a lawsuit from a local drive-in and other issues forced it to shut down. The service then set up an experimental run in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke, Canada in 1959, free from American antitrust laws and outside of the FCC's jurisdiction. Programming initially consisted essentially of first-run movies and fictional series. In 1961, Telemeter signed deals with the Toronto Argonauts football team and the Toronto Maple Leafs to broadcast away games; wrestling was also featured. Some original programming, such as a 1962 Bob Newhart stand-up comedy special, thought to be the first filmed pay-per-view television special were produced at Telemeter's Bloor Street studio and several Broadway shows and an opera performance were also broadcast. At its peak, 5,800 households were subscribed but the experiment was not a success and shut down operations on April 30, 1965, with only 2,500 subscribers.
One of the earliest pay-per-view systems on cable television, the Optical Systems-developed Channel 100, first began service in 1972 in San Diego, California through Mission Cable and TheaterVisioN, which operated out of Sarasota, Florida. These early systems quickly went out of business, as the cable industry adopted satellite technology and as flat-rate pay television services such as Home Box Office became popular.
While most pay-per-view services were delivered via cable, there were a few over-the-air pay TV stations that offered pay-per-view broadcasts in addition to regularly scheduled broadcasts of movies and other entertainment. These stations, which operated for a few years in Chicago, Los Angeles and some other cities, broadcast "scrambled" signals that required descrambler devices to convert the signal into standard broadcast format. These services were marketed as ON-TV.
Professional boxing during 1960s1970s
The first home pay-per-view cable television broadcast was the Floyd Patterson vs. Ingemar Johansson Ingemar Johansson vs. [Floyd Patterson II|rematch] in 1960, when 25,000 TelePrompTer subscribers mailed $2 to watch Patterson regain the heavyweight title. The Floyd Patterson vs. [Ingemar Johansson III|third PattersonJohansson match] in 1961 was later viewed by 100,000 paid cable subscribers. Muhammad Ali had several fights on early pay-per-view home television, including Cassius Clay vs. Doug Jones in 1963, and Sonny Liston vs. Cassius Clay which drew 250,000 buys on cable television in 1964.Professional boxing was largely introduced to pay-per-view cable television with the "Thrilla in Manila" fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in September 1975. The fight sold 500,000 pay-per-view buys on HBO. There was also another major title fight aired on pay-per-view in 1980, when Roberto Durán defeated Sugar Ray Leonard. Cable companies offered the match for $10, and about 155,000 customers paid to watch the fight.
1980s2000s
WWE chairman and chief executive officer Vince McMahon is considered by many as one of the icons of pay-per-view promotion. McMahon owns the domain name payperview.com, which redirects to the WWE Network website.With the rise of direct broadcast satellite services in the 1990s, this meant more services exclusively for DBS users appeared. DirecTV had Direct Ticket, while Dish Network had Dish On Demand. PrimeStar, on the other hand, utilized pre-existing services like Viewer's Choice and Request TV, though promotional material bannered all PPV services under the name of PrimeCinema.
Notable events
HBO PPV (professional boxing)
In 2006, HBO generated 3.7 million pay-per-view buys with $177 million in gross sales. The only year with more buys previously, 1999, had a total of 4 million. The former record fell in 2007 when HBO sold 4.8 million PPV buys with $255 million in sales. BY 2014, HBO had generated 59.3 million buys and $3.1 billion in revenue since its 1991 debut with Evander Holyfield-George Foreman.1999 differed radically from 2006: 1999 saw four major fight cards: De La Hoya-Trinidad, Holyfield-Lewis I, Holyfield-Lewis II and De La Hoya-Quartey. By contrast, only one pay-per-view mega-fight took place in 2006: De La Hoya-Mayorga. Rahman-Maskaev bombed with under 50,000. The other eight PPV cards that year all fell in the 325,000–450,000 range.
In May 2007, the junior middleweight boxing match between Oscar [De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr.] on HBO PPV became the biggest-selling non-heavyweight title fight, with a little more than 2.5 million buyers. The fight itself generated roughly in domestic PPV revenue, making it the most lucrative prizefight of that era. The record stood until 2015 before it was broken by Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao in a fight dubbed as the "Fight of the Century" on May 2, 2015, which generated 4.6 million ppv buys and a revenue of over $400 million.
The leading PPV attraction, Floyd Mayweather Jr. has generated approximately 24 million buys and $1.6 billion in revenue. Manny Pacquiao, ranked second, has generated approximately 20.1 million buys and $1.2 billion in revenue. Oscar De La Hoya, has "sold" approximately 14 million units in total, giving $700 million in domestic television receipts and stands third. In fourth place in buys, Evander Holyfield has achieved 12.6 million units ; and at fifth, Mike Tyson has reached 12.4 million units.
Ross Greenburg, then president of HBO Sports, called the expansion of pay-per-view "the biggest economic issue in boxing", stating "I can't tell you that pay-per-view helps the sport because it doesn't. It hurts the sport because it narrows our audience, but it's a fact of life. Every time we try to make an HBO World Championship Boxing fight, we're up against mythical pay-per-view numbers. HBO doesn't make a lot of money from pay-per-view. There's usually a cap on what we can make. But the promoters and fighters insist on pay-per-view because that's where their greatest profits lie."
"It's a big problem," Greenburg continues. "It's getting harder and harder to put fighters like Manny Pacquiao on HBO World Championship Boxing. If Floyd Mayweather beats Oscar, he might never fight on HBO World Championship Boxing again. But if HBO stopped doing pay-per-view, the promoters would simply do it on their own or find someone else who will do it for them."
Former HBO Sports President Seth Abraham concurs, saying, "I think, if Lou and I were still at HBO, we'd be in the same pickle as far as the exodus of fights to pay-per-view is concerned."
Ultimate Fighting Championship
The Ultimate Fighting Championship, a mixed martial arts promotion, was a relative newcomer to the PPV market. However, the promotion experienced a surge in popularity in the mid-2000s, credited initially to the popularity of an associated reality show on the cable channel Spike, The Ultimate Fighter. UFC 52—the first UFC event since its premiere, broke the promotion's record with almost 300,000 buys. PPV numbers escalated further in 2006, with its events taking in a gross revenue of $222 million. In October 2016, it was reported that 42% of the UFC's "content revenue" in 2015 came from pay-per-view buys, followed by U.S. and international media rights.In 2018, UFC 229 would pull an all-time record for the promotion, with estimates indicating that the event attracted nearly 2.4 million buys, breaking the 1.65 million buy record set by UFC 202.
In March 2019, as part of a larger contract with ESPN for media rights in the United States, it was announced that future UFC pay-per-views will only be sold to subscribers of the network's streaming service ESPN+.
In August 2025, UFC signed a new contract with Paramount Skydance that will move all UFC events to Paramount+ beginning in 2026, with selected events also being simulcast on the CBS broadcast network. The company also announced its intent to discontinue PPVs for its flagship "numbered" events, and have them stream on Paramount+ at no additional charge. Mark Shapiro, CEO of UFC parent company TKO Group Holdings, described the PPV model as being antiquated, and did not rule out the possibility that all "numbered" events may be carried by CBS.
Professional wrestling
has a long history of running pay-per-view events with them generally featuring the most important highest profile and highest-quality matches and storyline developments for a promotion compared to house shows or episodes of a promotion's TV series. WWE launched its first pay-per-view event in 1985 with its annual flagship event WrestleMania and has run numerous others throughout the years with the introductions of Survivor Series in 1987, SummerSlam in 1988 Royal Rumble as a Pay-per-view in 1989, King of the Ring in 1993 and made PPVs monthly with the introduction of In Your House shows in 1995 Although it still offers its events via traditional PPV outlets, they have also been included at no additional charge as part of a larger, subscription-based streaming service known as WWE Network. The service also includes original programming and an on-demand archive of events and television episodes from WWE's library. Following WrestleMania 34, the service had 2.12 million subscribers.Since the beginning of 2022, WWE has used the term "Premium Live Events" instead of pay-per-view to promote their availability via both traditional PPV and subscription streaming services.
Other major organizations both inside and outside the U.S. such as World Championship Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, Ring of Honor, New [Japan Pro-Wrestling], Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, and All Elite Wrestling have also run pay-per-view events.
Concerts
In 1999, Woodstock 1999 was broadcast via PPV from Griffiss International Airport in Rome, New York for people who wanted to attend but could not. The cameras were a cause of the downfall of the event.Also in 1999, Prince starred and performed in his New Year's Eve concert film Rave Un2 the Year 2000 at his Paisley Park Studios. It was distributed to PPV service In Demand after its relaunch from Viewer's Choice.
In 2015, PPV broadcasts of the Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead tour set a record for buys for a music event, with over 400,000.
PPV by region
The United Kingdom has a relatively large PPV market mainly because of the broadcaster Sky and its Premier League football matches. Similarly the market in Germany is relatively large because of Bundesliga football matches. While giving large revenues to broadcasters, there have been criticism for their schemes for its consumer costs.Canada
In Canada, most specialty television providers provide pay-per-view programming through one or more services. In all cases, prices typically range from around C$4.99 up to $50 or more for special events.Initially, there were three major PPV providers in Canada; Viewers Choice operated in Eastern Canada as a joint venture of Astral Media, Rogers Communications, and TSN. Western International Communications operated a separate service in the west initially known as Home Theatre; it was later rebranded as Viewers Choice under license.
Viewers Choice Canada was a partner in a French-language PPV service known as Canal Indigo, which is now entirely owned by Videotron. Bell Canada launched a PPV service for its ExpressVu television provider known as Vu! in 1999.
Home Theatre was later acquired by Shaw Communications; after gaining permission to operate nationally, it re-branded as a white-label PPV known internally as Shaw PPV in December 2007. In 2014, due to Bell Media's majority ownership of Viewers Choice because of its acquisition of Astral, and because both Bell and Rogers now ran their own in-house PPV operations, Viewers Choice was shut down.
Europe
In November 2008, pay-per-view made its debut in Albania through Digitalb on terrestrial and satellite television, with the channel DigiGold.In Croatia, Fight Channel is broadcasting martial arts events organized by the world's most prominent fighting organizations, such as the UFC, K-1, HBO Boxing, Dream, Glory WS, World Series of Boxing etc. and its pay-per-view service covers the Balkans region.
In France, launched in the late 1990s, Canalsat and TPS operate their own pay-per-view service. While CanalSat holds the rights to live soccer matches for France's Ligue 1, TPS had the rights for Boxe matches. In 2007, Multivision service ceased by the end of TPS service which merged with Canalsat. Nowadays, Ciné+ is the only existing pay-per-view service in France.
Sky Deutschland, accessible in Germany, Austria and partially in Switzerland, provided nine PPV-Channels called "Sky Select", where their regular Pay-TV customers can see movies or various sports events such as boxing or soccer. As of 1 October 2020, only sport and wrestling events remained on PPV as movies were changed towards a streaming service.
In Romania, cable communications operator UPC Romania has notified the National Audiovisual Council on the intention to introduce in January, February 2014 at the latest, an on-demand audiovisual media service called Agerpres. According to the manager of UPC Romania-owned Smaranda Radoi UPC, will allow customers to watch movies on demand or live events; as well as broadcasts of performances, concerts and sporting events.
Viewers in the United Kingdom and Ireland can access pay-per-view via satellite, cable and over-the-internet television services, mainly for films, boxing, mixed martial arts and American professional wrestling via services such as Sky Box Office and TNT Sports Box Office. Recent years has seen the number of pay-per-view boxing events significantly increase and currently all of the UK's top fights are only available via pay-per-view. Broadcasters have abandoned their aspirations to introduce PPV into other sports markets following poor interest from the public. In October 2020 during the 2020-21 season, the Premier League experimented with PPV telecasts of football matches not selected for broadcasts by its main rightsholders. However, the matches proved unpopular, with team supporters' groups urging fans to make donations to charity instead.
South America
Per nations with Pay-Per-View or PPV system in South América:In Argentina, Torneos y Competencias is a producer and sports events organization that are broadcasts live main matches of Argentine Soccer in four categories on TyC Sports, TyC Max, TyC Sports 2, TyC Sports 4 and TyC Sports 5.
In Brazil, in the soccer main matches of Serie A and Serie B in two categories of Brazilian Soccer are broadcast live on Premiere FC and SporTV. The Serie C Championship are broadcast live on SporTV with two games per matchday in Pay TV. In other sports are broadcast live on NBB TV.
In Chile, the exclusive rights of Chilean Soccer are owned by TV Fútbol and broadcast live on a channel called Canal Del Fútbol, also known CDF. Sports Field S.A. has exclusive rights to games on the Chilean professional basketball league, which are broadcast live vía CDO.
In Paraguay, the Teledeportes producer business have exclusive rights to broadcast live main matches of Paraguayan Soccer in four categories vía Tigo Max and Tigo Sports. Teledeportes have live broadcast of Paraguayan Basketball League broadcast Tuesday at 9:00 pm on Tigo Sports and Wednesday at 8:55 pm on Tigo Max .
In Uruguay, the Tenfield producer business and sports events organization have television exclusive rights for the Uruguayan soccer and basketball club championships, which are broadcast on VTV and VTV Plus.
Australia and the Pacific Islands
and Optus Vision introduced pay-per-view direct to home television in Australia in the mid-to-late 1990s. Foxtel had Event TV while, Optus Vision had Main Attraction Pay-Per-View as its provider. As of 2005, Main Event is the current pay-per-view provider through Foxtel and Optus cable/satellite subscription.Sky Pacific started a service in Fiji in 2005 and then expanded into American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu, with one, out of their 25 channels, being Pay-Per-View.
Asia
In Malaysia, Astro's Astro Box Office service launched in 2000 in the form of the free-to-air "Astro Showcase".In Japan, SkyPerfecTV subscribers can receive one-click pay-per-view access to hundreds of channels supplying domestic and international sporting events, movies, and specialty programming, either live or later on continuous repeat on its channel.
In India a pay-per-view service operates; however, pay-per-view sports broadcasts are available. Now also live events like WWE.
List of pay-per-view bouts
Boxing
Worldwide
The following is a list of boxing fights that have generated over 1million pay-per-view buys worldwide. These figures include closed-circuit theatre television, pay-per-view home television, and pay-per-view online streaming.United States (closed-circuit theatre TV)
Select boxing buy rates at American closed-circuit theatre television venues between 1951 and 2015:United States (PPV home television)
Select PPV boxing buy-rates between 1960 and 2023:United Kingdom
Select boxing pay-per-view figures since 1966. Many of these figures are based on BARB weekly viewing data figures.
| Date | Fight | Network | Buys | Source |
| 21 May 1966 | Muhammad Ali vs. Henry Cooper II | Pay TV | 40,000 | |
| 16 March 1996 | Frank Bruno vs. Mike Tyson II | Sky Box Office | 660,000 | |
| 9 November 1996 | Naseem Hamed vs. Remigio Molina | Sky Box Office | 420,000 | |
| 8 February 1997 | Naseem Hamed vs. Tom Johnson | Sky Box Office | 720,000 | |
| 3 May 1997 | Naseem Hamed vs. Hardy (boxer)|Billy Hardy] | Sky Box Office | ||
| 28 June 1997 | Evander Holyfield vs. Mike Tyson II | Sky Box Office | 550,000 | |
| 13 March 1999 | Evander Holyfield vs. Lennox Lewis | Sky Box Office | 400,000 | |
| 29 January 2000 | Mike Tyson vs. Julius Francis | Sky Box Office | 500,000 | |
| 19 August 2000 | Naseem Hamed vs. Augie Sanchez | Sky Box Office | 300,000 | |
| 8 June 2002 | Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson | Sky Box Office | 750,000 | |
| 8 December 2007 | Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Ricky Hatton | Sky Box Office | 1,150,000 | |
| 6 September 2008 | Amir Khan vs. Breidis Prescott | Sky Box Office | 250,000 | |
| 6 December 2008 | Amir Khan vs. Oisin Fagan | Sky Box Office | ||
| 14 March 2009 | Amir Khan vs. Marco Antonio Barrera | Sky Box Office | ||
| 2 May 2009 | Manny Pacquiao vs. Ricky Hatton | Sky Box Office | 900,000 | |
| 18 July 2009 | Amir Khan vs. Andreas Kotelnik | Sky Box Office | 100,000 | |
| 7 November 2009 | Nikolai Valuev vs. David Haye | Sky Box Office | 469,000 | |
| 5 December 2009 | Amir Khan vs. Dmitry Salita | Sky Box Office | ||
| 3 April 2010 | David Haye vs. John Ruiz | Sky Box Office | 253,000 | |
| 24 April 2010 | Carl Froch vs. Mikkel Kessler | Primetime | 50,000 | |
| 18 September 2010 | Kell Brook vs. Michael Jennings | Sky Box Office | ||
| 13 November 2010 | David Haye vs. Audley Harrison | Sky Box Office | 304,000 | |
| 11 December 2010 | Amir Khan vs. Marcos Maidana | Sky Box Office | ||
| 16 April 2011 | Amir Khan vs. Paul McCloskey | Primetime | ||
| 21 May 2011 | George Groves vs. James DeGale | Sky Box Office | 43,000 | |
| 02 July 2011 | Wladimir Klitschko vs. David Haye | Sky Box Office | 1,197,000 | |
| 25 May 2013 | Carl Froch vs. Mikkel Kessler II | Sky Box Office | 32,000 | |
| 23 November 2013 | Carl Froch vs. George Groves | Sky Box Office | ||
| 31 May 2014 | George Groves II">George Groves (boxer)">George Groves II | Sky Box Office | 355,000 | |
| 22 November 2014 | Tony Bellew vs. Nathan Cleverly II | Sky Box Office | 131,000 | |
| 2 May 2015 | Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao | Sky Box Office | 942,000 | |
| 30 May 2015 | Kell Brook vs. Frankie Gavin | Sky Box Office | 139,000 | |
| 28 November 2015 | Wladimir Klitschko vs. Tyson Fury | Sky Box Office | 655,000 | |
| 12 December 2015 | Anthony Joshua vs. Dillian Whyte | Sky Box Office | 699,000 | |
| 27 February 2016 | Carl Frampton vs. Scott Quigg | Sky Box Office | 220,000 | |
| 9 April 2016 | Charles Martin vs. Anthony Joshua | Sky Box Office | 1,368,000 | |
| 25 June 2016 | Anthony Joshua vs. Dominic Breazeale | Sky Box Office | 617,000 | |
| 10 September 2016 | Gennady Golovkin vs. Kell Brook | Sky Box Office | 752,000 | |
| 10 December 2016 | Anthony Joshua vs. Éric Molina | Sky Box Office | 764,000 | |
| 4 February 2017 | Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Renold Quinlan | ITV Box Office | 86,000 | |
| 4 March 2017 | David Haye vs. Tony Bellew | Sky Box Office | 1,515,000 | |
| 29 April 2017 | Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko | Sky Box Office | 1,631,000 | |
| 27 May 2017 | Kell Brook vs. Errol Spence Jr | Sky Box Office | 405,000 | |
| 26 August 2017 | Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor | Sky Box Office | 1,007,000 | |
| 28 October 2017 | Anthony Joshua vs. Carlos Takam | Sky Box Office | 1,009,000 | |
| 31 March 2018 | Anthony Joshua vs. Joseph Parker | Sky Box Office | 1,832,000 | |
| 5 May 2018 | Tony Bellew vs. David Haye II | Sky Box Office | 1,048,000 | |
| 28 July 2018 | Dillian Whyte vs. Joseph Parker | Sky Box Office | 571,000 | |
| 22 September 2018 | Anthony Joshua vs. Alexander Povetkin | Sky Box Office | 1,247,000 | |
| 10 November 2018 | Oleksandr Usyk vs. Tony Bellew | Sky Box Office | 819,000 | |
| 1 December 2018 | Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury | BT Sport Box Office | 450,000 | |
| 22 December 2018 | Dillian Whyte vs. Derek Chisora II | Sky Box Office | 532,000 | |
| 1 June 2019 | Anthony Joshua vs. Andy Ruiz Jr. | Sky Box Office | 652,000 | |
| 20 July 2019 | Dillian Whyte vs. Óscar Rivas | Sky Box Office | 368,000 | |
| 31 August 2019 | Vasiliy Lomachenko vs. Luke Campbell | Sky Box Office | 205,000 | |
| 26 October 2019 | Regis Prograis vs. Josh Taylor | Sky Box Office | 176,000 | |
| 9 November 2019 | KSI vs. Logan Paul II | Sky Box Office | 216,000 | |
| 7 December 2019 | Andy Ruiz Jr. vs. Anthony Joshua II | Sky Box Office | 1,575,000 | |
| 22 August 2020 | Dillian Whyte vs. Alexander Povetkin | Sky Box Office | 337,000 | |
| 31 October 2020 | Oleksandr Usyk vs. Derek Chisora | Sky Box Office | 1,059,000 | |
| 12 December 2020 | Anthony Joshua vs. Kubrat Pulev | Sky Box Office | 948,000 | |
| 27 March 2021 | Alexander Povetkin vs. Dillian Whyte II | Sky Box Office | 197,000 | |
| 1 May 2021 | Derek Chisora vs. Joseph Parker | Sky Box Office | 145,000 | |
| 25 September 2021 | Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk | Sky Box Office | 1,232,000 | |
| 9 October 2021 | Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder III | BT Sport Box Office | 300,000 | |
| 19 February 2022 | Amir Khan vs. Kell Brook | Sky Box Office | 600,000 | |
| 20 August 2022 | Oleksandr Usyk vs. Anthony Joshua II | Sky Box Office | 1,249,000 | |
| 3 December 2022 | Tyson Fury vs. Derek Chisora III | BT Sport Box Office | 500,000 | |
| 21 January 2023 | Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Liam Smith | Sky Box Office | 200,000 |
Mixed martial arts (MMA)
The first pay-per-view mixed martial arts bout was Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki, which took place in Japan on. It sold at least buys on closed-circuit theatre TV. At a ticket price of $10, the fight grossed at least or more from closed-circuit theatre TV revenue in the United States.Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
The highest buy rates for the UFC as of 2021 are as follows.Note: The UFC does not release official PPV statistics, and the following PPV numbers are as reported by industry insiders. As of April 2019, all PPV's are iPPV's, with distribution on the internet exclusively via ESPN+.
| Date | Event | Headline | Buy rate | Revenue |
| UFC 229 | Khabib vs. McGregor | 2,400,000 | ||
| Jul 10, 2021 | UFC 264 | Poirier vs. McGregor 3 | 1,800,000 | |
| UFC 202 | Diaz vs. McGregor 2 | 1,650,000 | ||
| UFC 257 | Poirier vs. McGregor 2 | 1,600,000 | ||
| UFC 100 | Lesnar vs. Mir | 1,600,000 | $82 million | |
| Jan 18, 2020 | UFC 246 | McGregor vs Cowboy | 1,353,429 | |
| UFC 196 | McGregor vs. Diaz | 1,317,000 | ||
| UFC 251 | Usman vs. Masvidal | 1,300,000 | ||
| UFC 205 | Alvarez vs. McGregor | 1,300,000 | ||
| UFC 200 | Tate vs. Nunes | 1,200,000 | ||
| UFC 194 | Aldo vs. McGregor | 1,200,000 | ||
| UFC 116 | Lesnar vs. Carwin | 1,160,000 | $55 million | |
| UFC 193 | Rousey vs. Holm | 1,100,000 | $60 million | |
| UFC 207 | Nunes vs. Rousey | 1,100,000 | ||
| UFC 66 | Liddell vs. Ortiz 2 | 1,050,000 | $53 million | |
| UFC 114 | Rampage vs. Evans | 1,050,000 | ||
| UFC 121 | Lesnar vs. Velasquez | 1,050,000 | $45 million | |
| UFC 168 | Weidman vs. Silva II | 1,025,000 | ||
| UFC 91 | Couture vs. Lesnar | 1,010,000 | $47 million | |
| UFC 92 | Evans vs. Griffin | 1,000,000 | ||
| UFC 158 | St-Pierre vs. Diaz | 950,000 | ||
| UFC 148 | Silva vs. Sonnen II | 925,000 | ||
| UFC 94 | St-Pierre vs. Penn 2 | 920,000 | ||
| UFC 190 | Rousey vs. Correia | 900,000 | ||
| UFC 217 | Bisping vs. St-Pierre | 875,000 | ||
| UFC 214 | Cormier vs. Jones 2 | 860,000 | ||
| UFC 101 | Declaration | 850,000 | ||
| UFC 189 | Mendes vs. McGregor | 825,000 | ||
| UFC 259 | Błachowicz vs. Adesanya | 800,000 | ||
| UFC 129 | St-Pierre vs. Shields | 800,000 | ||
| UFC 182 | Jones vs. Cormier | 800,000 | ||
| UFC 124 | St-Pierre vs. Koscheck 2 | 785,000 | ||
| UFC 111 | St-Pierre vs. Hardy | 770,000 | ||
| UFC 141 | Lesnar vs. Overeem | 750,000 | ||
| UFC 126 | Silva vs. Belfort | 725,000 | ||
| UFC 268 | Usman vs. Covington 2 | 700,000 | ||
| UFC 79 | Nemesis | 700,000 | ||
| UFC 145 | Jones vs. Evans | 700,000 | ||
| UFC 154 | St. Pierre vs. Condit | 700,000 | ||
| UFC 232 | Jones vs. Gustafsson 2 | 700,000 | ||
| UFC 261 | Usman vs. Masvidal 2 | 700,000 | ||
| UFC 249 | Ferguson vs. Gaethje | 700,000 | ||
| UFC 253 | Adesanya vs. Costa | 700,000 | ||
| UFC 254 | Khabib vs. Gaethje | 675,000 | ||
| UFC 71 | Liddell vs. Jackson | 675,000 |
Professional wrestling (United States)
in March 1985 sold over 1million buys on closed-circuit theatre TV in the United States, making it the largest pay-per-view showing of a wrestling event in the US at the time.PPV home television
The highest buy rates for professional wrestling events on pay-per-view home television are as follows.| No. | Date | Event | Buy rate |
| 1 | WrestleMania 23 | 1,250,000 | |
| 2 | WrestleMania XXVIII | 1,219,000 | |
| 3 | WrestleMania XXVII | 1,124,000 | |
| 4 | WrestleMania 29 | 1,104,000 | |
| 5 | WrestleMania 21 | 1,090,000 | |
| 6 | WrestleMania XXIV | 1,041,000 | |
| 7 | WrestleMania X-Seven | 1,040,000 | |
| 8 | WrestleMania XX | 1,020,000 | |
| 9 | WrestleMania 22 | 975,000 | |
| 10 | WrestleMania 25 | 960,000 | |
| 11 | WrestleMania XXVI | 885,000 | |
| 12 | WrestleMania X8 | 880,000 | |
| 13 | WrestleMania 2000 | 824,000 | |
| 14 | WrestleMania XV | 800,000 | |
| 15 | WWF Invasion | 770,000 | |
| 16 | WrestleMania V | 767,000 |
List of sportsmen with highest pay-per-view sales
This tables lists the sportsmen who have had the highest pay-per-view sales, with at least 10million buys. It includes sportsmen who have participated in boxing, mixed martial arts, and professional wrestling.| Sportsman | Total sales | Closed-circuit theatre TV | PPV home television | Years | Sport |
| Muhammad Ali | 19631985 | Professional boxing | |||
| Muhammad Ali | 19631985 | Mixed martial arts | |||
| Muhammad Ali | 19631985 | Professional wrestling | |||
| Joe Frazier | 19651981 | Professional boxing | |||
| George Foreman | 19741993 | Professional boxing | |||
| Floyd Mayweather Jr. | 20052017 | Professional boxing | |||
| Floyd Mayweather Jr. | 20052017 | Professional wrestling | |||
| Manny Pacquiao | 20052019 | Professional boxing | |||
| Mike Tyson | 19882020 | Professional boxing | |||
| Mike Tyson | 19882020 | Professional wrestling | |||
| Triple H | 19942019 | Professional wrestling | |||
| Conor McGregor | rowspan="2" | 20152021 | Mixed martial arts | ||
| Conor McGregor | Professional boxing | 20152021 | - | ||
| John Cena | 20022021 | Professional wrestling | |||
| The Rock | 19982013 | Professional wrestling | |||
| The Undertaker | 19902020 | Professional wrestling | |||
| Oscar De La Hoya | 19952008 | Professional boxing | |||
| Anthony Joshua | 20152021 | Professional boxing | |||
| Brock Lesnar | rowspan="2" | 20022020 | Professional wrestling | ||
| Brock Lesnar | Mixed martial arts | 20022020 | - | ||
| Evander Holyfield | 19842003 | Professional boxing | |||
| Canelo Álvarez | 20132023 | Professional Boxing | |||
| Shawn Michaels | 19882018 | Professional wrestling |