“McGregor’s 3.5 million buys from July 2015 to March 2016 was more than the entire UFC managed in 2014, which was estimated at around 3 – 3.2 million buys. Let that sink in for a second. McGregor’s first three pay-per-views brought in more buys than the entire roster did in 2014.”
“Please note that as the UFC doesn’t release details of pay-per-view buys, all of the numbers in this article are estimates based on the numbers reported by the excellent Dave Meltzer in his Wrestling Observer newsletter and reprinted on MMAPayout.com.
There are a few different ways to measure who the biggest draw is in UFC history. The obvious one would be the total number of buys a card draws while a fighter is the main event or co-main event. By this metric the winner is Georges St. Pierre. GSP has drawn around 10.5 million buys over 14 fights, which is an impressive average of 750,000 buys per event. A few other legendary fighters have numbers almost as impressive as GSP’s in their own way.
Anderson Silva has drawn either 9.3 milion buys, or around 10.5 million if you stretch the rules to include UFC 200. He managed that over 17 or 18 events respectively, for an average of 550,000 or 585,000 buys per event.”
Check out the rest of this amazingly insightful article from Iain Kidd here: http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2016/11/17/13663352/conor-mcgregor-ppv-buys-record-ronda-rousey-ufc-205-biggest-draw-fighter-ever
