As expected, the welterweight title unification bout between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao has likely broken all pay-per-view records in the US.
Distributors Showtime and HBO haven't yet released figures, but early fight buys pointed to the match-up surpassing the three million buy mark. At an $89 suggested retail price ($99 for the high definition feed in many cases), industry estimates are coming in for at least $300 million.
The previous record was 2.48 million buys for HBO's 2007 Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya fight, while the revenue record was set by the $152 million haul for Showtime's 2013 Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez fight.
Verizon said that the Mayweather-Pacquiao bout brought in more than 250,000 buys, making it the telco's biggest PPV event ever.
Pirated streams from people using Twitter's Periscope app and Meerkat took a bite out of the revenue, as did the fact that Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications meanwhile experienced outages during the fight. But still, the fight will pack a punch on the purchasing front.
Mayweather vs. Pacquiao was a 12-round welterweight world championship bout; Mayweather defeated Pacquiao by unanimous decision, and remains undefeated with a record of 48-0. The pay-per-view telecast was co-produced and co-distributed by HBO and Showtime on Saturday, 2 May, live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
