The Match 2022 Passes UFC Attendance Record, Rakes In Huge PPV Numbers

The Match 2022 delivered in all areas this past weekend (Sun., June 19, 2022).

After fans spent years fantasizing about the match-up between superstar kickboxers, Tenshin Nasukawa and Takeru Segawa, the trio of promotions, RIZIN, RISE, and K-1 came together to make the combat sports world’s dream come true inside the world-famous Tokyo Dome.

Nasukawa, 23, has already etched his name into the history books with sensational performance after performance to amass a flawless record, boasting 44 victories. Segawa, 30, on the other hand, has drawn similar results throughout his career only suffering defeat on three occasions as opposed to his 41 wins. The recent tallying of the numbers on each’s records came after the two met for The Match 2022.

In the end, it was Nasukawa who remained perfect, scoring a unanimous decision victory in the action-packed three-round affair (watch highlights). Unsurprisingly great as an event overall, the numbers on the business end rolled in quite nicely, too.

K-1 Founder Kazuyoshi Ishii revealed a handful of big numbers on Twitter in the aftermath of the event, sharing that The Match 2022 sold $500K pay-per-views (PPV). With the event airing exclusively on Abema, a Japanese live TV streaming website, the only way for viewers outside of the country to sign up and watch was through a Virtual Private Network (VPN). In theory, the event could have done even better had it also been broadcasted on an international platform as originally planned, along with the premiere Japanese television channel, Fuji TV. The channel’s stock dropped 22 percent after it backed out of its original deal to broadcast the event.

Also per Ishii’s report, the PPV numbers earned the event $25 million, plus an additional $5 million through sponsors, and $50 million in revenue. The attendance numbers also came in roughly at a staggering 59,000 and sold 56,399 tickets. The Match 2022’s attendance number surpasses Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) attendance record of 57,127 at UFC 243 in Oct. 2019 in Melbourne, Australia’s Marvel Stadium.