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The UFC exploded in popularity during the last decade – 2005 to be exact – when the airing of The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV sent the promotion from an underground phenomenon directly into the mainstream eye, but the decade between 2010 and 2019 has seen even further growth.
The UFC has moved from Spike TV to the Fox network and now to the ESPN network, and millions of fans have been converted to the sport of MMA in the process. Most notably, the promotion was able to sell an insane amount of pay-per-views over the last ten years – to the point where 4 of the 5 best-selling of all time have taken place since the beginning of 2010.
Here are the UFC’s 5 best-selling pay-per-views of the decade (2010-2019).
#5 UFC 194: Aldo vs McGregor – 12th December, 2015 – 1,200,000 buys
UFC 194 was expected at the time to become the UFC’s best-selling pay-per-view of all time, but in the end, it fell slightly short of that mark, drawing an estimated 1,200,000 buys compared to UFC 100’s 1,300,000 buys in 2009.
The show was the first real display of the drawing power of Conor McGregor, as the Irishman challenged – and defeated – Jose Aldo for the UFC Featherweight title in the main event, elevating himself to super-stardom with an incredible 13-second knockout of the Brazilian, who hadn’t lost a fight in over a decade.
The UFC was treating the show as a big one from the off, and so the fans were given another title fight on the undercard, as Luke Rockhold dethroned Chris Weidman for the UFC Middleweight title, and also got to see a Middleweight title eliminator between Yoel Romero and Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza.
UFC 194 didn’t quite top the quality of the previous show that McGregor headlined – the phenomenal UFC 189 – but the millions of fans who watched definitely wouldn’t have been disappointed.
#4 UFC 205: Alvarez vs McGregor – 12th November, 2016 – 1,300,000 buys
The UFC’s first ever show in New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden, UFC 205 probably would’ve been a best-seller based purely on its historical significance, but the promotion decided to stack the card hugely too, giving the fans three title fights, capped off with the UFC’s biggest star – Conor McGregor – challenging Eddie Alvarez for the UFC Lightweight title.
The result was a show that went down extremely well with UFC fans – drawing 1,300,000 buys, the same amount as the legendary UFC100 had done back in 2009. And despite three title fights always being a risky sell due to the potential length, the action inside the Octagon delivered the goods, too.
‘The Notorious One’ knocked out Alvarez to become the first man to simultaneously hold UFC titles in two weight classes – probably his crowning achievement in MMA – while Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson won the Fight of the Night award for their epic Welterweight title battle.
Overall, this was a successful entrance into the New York market, and the UFC haven’t quite been able to match it since.
#3 UFC 196: McGregor vs Diaz – 5th March, 2016 – 1,317,000 buys
UFC 196 was initially going to see UFC Featherweight champion Conor McGregor aiming to become a double champion by challenging Lightweight kingpin Rafael Dos Anjos for his title, but when the Brazilian withdrew with a broken foot, the promotion were forced to find a replacement on late notice.
Veteran Nate Diaz stepped in to fight McGregor, and with the fight becoming a non-title affair at 170lbs – where the Irishman had never fought previously – all expectations went out of the window. That’s why it came as such a shock when the show became the UFC’s first to top their pay-per-view buyrate record for 7 years, beating out UFC 100’s record by just 17,000 buys.
That wasn’t the only shock of the night; not only did Diaz surprise everyone by withstanding the punching power of ‘The Notorious One’ to submit him with a rear naked choke, but in the co-main event, Miesha Tate surprisingly overcame Holly Holm, choking her out in the fifth round of their Women’s Bantamweight title match to claim the crown.
The McGregor/Diaz rivalry would largely define the UFC’s fortunes in 2016, and UFC 196’s success was the first sign of that.
#2 UFC 202: Diaz vs McGregor 2 – 20th August, 2016 – 1,600,000 buys
After the huge success of UFC 196, the UFC attempted to book a rematch between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz in the main event of what should’ve been one of the biggest shows of all time – UFC 200. But the Irishman refused to attend a series of press conferences, and so the promotion scrapped the idea and turned to Brock Lesnar for that show instead, eventually re-booking McGregor vs Diaz for August’s UFC 202.
Interestingly, the opinion of a lot of hardcore fans was that the rivalry between the two had cooled off leading into the show, and thus it would likely flop on pay-per-view. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. A wild pre-fight press conference that saw the two fighters hurl water bottles at each other heated things up again, and in the end the public bit, allowing the show to break the UFC’s buyrate record, this time by 300,000 buys.
The show itself wasn’t loaded with name value this time, but nobody was really tuning in for the undercard, and the big main event delivered in spades. McGregor and Diaz went toe-to-toe for the full five rounds, with ‘The Notorious One’ edging a victory by majority decision.
The battle ended up being voted as Fight of the Year by many publications, and so everyone who ordered the show more than got their money’s worth.
#1 UFC 229: Khabib vs McGregor – 6th October, 2018 – 2,400,000 buys
The UFC finally broke the 2 million buyrate mark in 2018 with what was undoubtedly the biggest show in promotional history. Conor McGregor – the biggest drawing card in MMA history by far – returned from an absence of nearly two years to face off with the man who’d claimed the title he never actually lost – Khabib Nurmagomedov – and the entire MMA fanbase was salivating over what could happen.
In the end, UFC 229 lived up to the hype and then some, even with its highly controversial ending. The fans who watched were treated to a classic undercard, with Derrick Lewis pulling out an all-time great comeback to knock out Alexander Volkov with less than a minute to go, and Tony Ferguson and Anthony Pettis clashed in an incredible brawl.
The fight between Nurmagomedov and McGregor was just as crazy as fans had hoped, too; ‘The Eagle’ largely dominated the Irishman with his wrestling and ground-and-pound, destroying him with punches and elbows en route to a fourth round submission via neck crank to prove he was the better fighter all along.
Sure, things descended into chaos post-fight when Nurmagomedov and his corner brawled with McGregor and his teammates, but in the end, it only made the show more memorable. Will the UFC break this record again in the next decade? Only time will tell.
