PPV Sales for Mayweather-Pacquiao: $455 million
Projected PPV Sales for Mayweather-McGregor: $475 million
The average price charged for Mayweather-Pacquiao Pay-Per-View was $99. On a remarkable 4.6 million buys, that equaled $455 million.
To understand pricing strategy and appeal, we went to Tammy Ross, who worked for HBO for 25 years, last as senior vice president of HBO PPV. "We felt that $100 was a fair price for Mayweather-Pacquiao," said Ross, who now runs her own sports TV promotion company called Acclaim Sports and Entertainment. "I think it hurts this fight that people were so disappointed afterwards."
Fans who bought the Pay-Per-View sued Pacquiao and his promoters Top Rank for a lackluster fight that gained some legal traction when, after the fight, it became clear that Pacquiao had a prior injury.
"I think we thought that there wasn't going to be anything like that fight again, but if there was, it would be this one," Ross said. "That's why I think they should put out the $100 price tag again and let Conor's mouth do the talking."
Ross says with the UFC fans and the boxing fans, she can see the total number of buys topping Mayweather-Pacquiao. So we'll call it 4.75 million buys, which would give this fight a $20 million win over Mayweather-Pacquiao.