It appears that UFC 268 was a success domestically.
According to a report from the Sports Business
Journal, the event drew approximately 700,000 pay-per-view buys
through ESPN+ in the United States (h/t TSN
). That figure, of course, does not reflect international purchases
of the UFC 268 card. ESPN+ holds the exclusive right to UFC
pay-per-view events in the United States.
UFC 268 took place on Nov. 4 at Madison Square Garden in New York
and saw Kamaru
Usman defend his welterweight crown with five-round decision
win in a rematch against Colby
Covington in the evening’s main event. In the co-headliner,
Rose
Namajunas edged Weili Zhang
via split decision in another rematch to retain her strawweight
crown.
The main draw began with a “Fight of the Year” candidate between
Justin
Gaethje and Michael
Chandler, and also saw a competitive duel between Shane
Burgos and Billy
Quarantillo as well Marlon
Vera’s front-kick KO of Frankie
Edgar.
Just based on U.S. numbers alone, UFC 268 checks in as the
promotion’s
fourth-highest selling pay-per-view of 2021 behind UFC 257 (1.6
million), UFC 264 (1.5 million) and UFC 259 (800,000). UFC 257 and
UFC 264 were headlined by the second and third meetings between
Dustin
Poirier and Conor
McGregor, while UFC 259 was topped by a light heavyweight title
tilt between Jan
Blachowicz and Israel
Adesanya.