Conner McGregor made headlines when the defeated Jose Aldo in the first round knockout win in the UFC 194 main event which pretty much took the internet by storm. Behind the scenes however UFC 194 fell just short of setting a new UFC ppv record with over 1.4 million ppv buys coming secondly only to all-time best UFC 100 which had over 1.6 million buys. But considering McGregor’s rise to fame tts just the matter of time when he will headlines the record-breaking UFC PPV of all times. We take a look at top highest grossing PPV events in UFC’s relatively short history.
Conner McGregor broke internet with his 13 second knockout win over Jose Aldo in the UFC 194 main event and UFC 194 was widerly regarded as the one fight card which will break or atleast come close to UFC 100 record of 1.6 million ppv buys. Since UFC don’t release official ppv numbers the industy estimates are that McGregor-Aldo did pretty well in terms of PPV buys and became the second highest grossing fight of all times with 1.4 million ppv buys but in terms of gross revenue UFC 194 comes in top with $90 million generated from PPV sales.
NO#1. UFC 100 (Highest Grossing UFC PPV Fight Card):
Total PPV Buys: 1,600,000
Gate Receipts: $5.12 million
Total Revenue: $82 million
Brock Lesnar has headlined 4 of the top 6 highest grossing UFC fight cards of all times. The biggest so far in terms of PPV buys was historic “UFC 100” card back in July 2009 where Brock Lesnar fought Frank Mir and Georges St-Pierre defeated Thiago Alves. A total of 1.6 million ppv were sold bringing in $82 million in revenue.
More than 10,000 people attended the night at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and the gate receipts were disclosed at $5,12 million. Which took the total revenue from this fight card to a massive $82 million. Since than UFC has failed to hit that mark although they came close on couple of occasions.
Here is the list of top 10 Highest grossing UFC PPV events. The numbers stated below are officialy disclosed by UFC and navada fighting commission.
| # | UFC | MAIN-EVENT | PPV SOLD | GROSS REVENUE |
| 1 | UFC 100 (Jul 2009) | Lesnar vs Mir | 1,600,000 | $82 Million |
| 1 | UFC 194 (Dec 2015) | McGregor vs Aldo | 1,400,000 | $90 Million |
| 2 | UFC 116 (Jul 2010) | Lesnar vs Carwin | 1,116,000 | $55 million |
| 3 | UFC 158 (Mar 2013) | St-Pierre vs Diaz | 1,110,000 | $48 million+ |
| 4 | UFC 168 (Dec 2013) | Weidman vs Silva 2 | 1,110,000 | $53 million+ |
| 1 | UFC 193 (Nov 2015) | Rousey vs Holm | 1,100,000 | $60 Million |
| 5 | UFC 66 (Dec 2006) | Liddell vs Ortiz II | 1,050,000 | $53 million+ |
| 6 | UFC 121 (Oct 2010) | Lesnar vs Velasquez | 1,050,000 | $45 million+ |
| 7 | UFC 91 (Nov 2008) | Lesnar vs Couture | 1,010,000 | $47 million+ |
| 8 | UFC 92 (Dec 2008) | Griffin-Evans & Silva-Rampage | 1,000,000 | |
| 9 | UFC 148 (Jul 2012) | Silva vs Sonnen II | 1,000,000 | |
| 10 | UFC 94 (Jan 2009) | St-Pierre vs Penn 2 | 920,000 |
Mixed Martial Arts has come along way as a sport in last couple of decades with UFC setting the standard in MMA. It was not long ago when MMA was barely heard of, MMA was pretty much illegal in many countries but since UFC started to gain momentum it became a money making mechine for the fighters and for UFC itself. Some of the greatest MMA fighters has headlined UFC PPV events over the last 10 years.
UFC 194 was when Dana White began to exaggerate about UFC sales. The UFC was sold and the ‘deck’ presentation to the WME-IMG buyers indicates 194 did 1.1M buys, 202 and 205 did 1.3M buys each, NOT 1.6M buys as White reported to the media. He had to tell the truth to the buyers. Seems like +300k is Dana’s preferred exaggeration #.