DAZN got into boxing and promised to “Change the game.” In announcing the PPV figures for Canelo vs GGG 3, they did exactly that.
The streaming app stalled in 2018, and at the same time declared, “Pay Per View is dead!”
Four years later, DAZN has completely altered how all future Pay Per View sales are totaled.
Canelo vs GGG 3 PPV sales
In a deliberate act on Wednesday, DAZN executives released a statement in direct response to “boxing insiders” revealing the US purchases.
To tell no lies, Canelo Alvarez’s undisputed super middleweight championship defense trilogy against Gennadiy Golovkin had sales of around half a million PPV.
As Canelo dominated GGG to defend his WBA, IBF, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, many American fans won the fight for $84.99.
WBN can confirm that the ballpark figure is correct. Nothing in that information is wrong.
However, this past Saturday, the Las Vegas showdown did not sell anywhere near what DAZN needs to make a significant profit.
DAZN PPV
That’s just the way it is and undeniable. All DAZN could do was release their figures and hope fans would forget the fact that they were sales from every territory in the world.
“DAZN Group has confirmed that the fight night of Canelo vs. GGG III had a global audience of millions. More than 1.06 million purchases generated worldwide, including PPV and DAZN subscriptions”, they stated.
Adding game subscriptions is also a new way to count Pay Per View sales. Another game changer for DAZN.
But as of 2020, DAZN claims to broadcast its events to more than 200 of the world’s 241 nations and territories.
They state: “In 2020, DAZN expanded to more than 200 countries and territories, serving sports fans around the world with a wide range of live world championship boxing and original on-demand programming.”
Therefore, if you calculate some numbers on your own, you can understand the reality.
Worldwide subscriptions
If Canelo vs GGG 3 sold 500,000 in the US with the odd 60,000 thrown in for good measure, that’s a total of 560,000 purchases.
Avid boxing fans in Canada and the UK could probably account for around 200,000 of that total on a good night.
That leaves 300,000 among the rest of the more than 199 territories on the planet. Rounding it up to 200 means that Matchroom Boxing and DAZN PPV sold an average of 1,500 Canelo vs GGG 3 PPVs per region across all devices.
If that’s a hit, having paid Canelo $45 million and Golovkin $20 million for their troubles, then fair play to DAZN.
They have reinvented the Pay Per View wheel, and others like Showtime, FOX PPV, ESPN+ and others should take other live streaming media to view their paid events into the equation, including tablet and smart TV options.
Bob Arum did it with the Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury II WBC title fight. As some reported sales of 800,000 for the February 2020 heavyweight rematch, Arum told WBN the following information.
PPV figures surpassed
“Regarding the Fury vs Wilder (II) Pay-Per-View, they don’t have the digital numbers yet. The digital one has over 300,000 purchases,” Arum exclusively told World Boxing News.
“It’s probably something accurate [the 850,000 reported]. But then you add digital on top of that.
“So three hundred and change [to 850,000]. It’s closer to 1.2 million.”
The Canelo vs. GGG trilogy fight at 560,000 or so is similar to the light heavyweight bout with Dmitry Bivol in May, if you believe the reports.
However, Floyd Mayweather CEO Leonard Ellerbe claims the card did far less when it comes to selling on DAZN PPV.
Ellerbe claimed: “Canelo just did 120k on satellite and cable in the US. I repeat, that has never happened. Do you know how bad that is?
“Yes, it was terrible compared to the great [stuff] has done it in Vegas in the past, but they reduced ticket prices three times.
“You could get a room at the MGM [Grand] on fight night for $179 on the Mexican holiday weekend. Have you been to Vegas for a Canelo fight over the holidays? [you can never get a room]?
“[I’m] don’t look in your pocket [I’m] just giving some of you fools the facts instead of repeating the fool [stuff].
“You can’t tell me [anything] about the boxing business. [I’ve] been doing this at the highest level for many years. Review the resume.
“Canelo just lost and made a combined 120k buys on cable and satellite in the US I repeat, 120k combined with nine million [dollar] living door.
“That is a fact,” he concluded.
Future
Whichever way you look at it, DAZN was constantly fighting against all odds to try to sell the third fight. Saul Alvarez is still at his peak as GGG heads toward retirement.
Adding Jesse Rodriguez to the co-feature against Israel Gonzalez would have helped sales a bit. But the rest of the card featuring Austin Williams, Ali Akhmedov vs. Gabriel Rosado and Marc Castro left little to be desired.
More significant fights should have been added to the bill. DAZN had to fully maximize the potential outside of the main event to reach 1 million sales.
DAZN took a gamble on the fact that boxing fans always want to see Canelo no matter the opponent. Why wouldn’t they think so with Golovkin on the other side of the ring after a successful split draw and majority decision in the previous contests?
However, this is no longer the case in a world where Pay Per View is becoming a blight on boxing. Shoppers are forced to choose which events they shell out cash for each month.
This saturation means that the billboards must improve. If they don’t, sales will drop overall.
WBN editor Phil Jay has over ten years of boxing news experience. He follows WBN on Facebook @officialworldboxingnews, Instagram and Twitter @worldboxingnews.
