In 2016, the UFC was sold to WME-IMG for $4.3 billion.
The sale was made during one of the best years in the UFC’s 23-year existence.
In 2016, the UFC had multiple pay-per-view events that earned over 1 million pay-per-view buys. UFC 196, UFC 200, UFC 202, and UFC 205 are among the most successful UFC pay-per-views of all time, and they all happened in the same year.
Now, in 2017, the UFC is struggling to have success on pay-per-view. Over halfway through the year, the UFC has had only one pay-per-view that has been on par with the major event of last year.
Last Saturday’s UFC 214 is trending towards 1 million buys, but it is still too early to know for sure.
Out of the other six UFC pay-per-views in 2017, none of them were able to surpass 300,000 buys, which is less than half of the average buys for UFC pay-per-views in 2016.
With the UFC’s lack of success in 2017, one must ask, was the UFC really worth over $1 billion?
