Some businesses figures have surfaced online regarding the latest pay-per-view event presented by WWE, which was SummerSlam.
Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that although WWE announced a sell out crowd of 16,904, the actual number of fans in attendance was over 13,500. It was a legitimate sellout.
Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins for the Universal Title ended up headlining Sunday’s (August 11, 2019) WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view event in Toronto, Ontario at the Scotiabank Arena on the WWE Network.
Regarding the buyrate on traditional pay-per-view outlets, the show did 19,600 PPV buys, which is down from 29,999 last year (34%). This is also down 8-9% from last year for the WWE Network as 72% of the audience didn’t buy last year’s show.
WWE’s streaming service, WWE Network, had issues that led to complaints from fans. Meltzer would speculate that most of the fans likely skipped one or the other as those who bought it last year simply lost interest in the product.
By breaking down the numbers, there were 14,200 buyers this year who did not buy last year and 24,500 who bought last year that didn’t buy this year.