Report: GSP Return Drives UFC 217 to Estimated 875,000 Pay-Per-View Buys

It wasn’t quite Conor McGregor numbers, but UFC 217 still did pretty well in the pay-per-view department.

According to a report from MMAFighting.com, the Nov. 4 card at Madison Square Garden in New York did an estimated 875,000 pay-per-view buys in North America. That would make it the UFC’s top-selling card of 2017, surpassing the reported 860,000 buys drawn by UFC 214, which was headlined by a light heavyweight title rematch between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier.

The main attraction of UFC 217, of course, was the return of Georges St. Pierre. The ex-welterweight champion had not competed in the Octagon since 2013, and he made a successful comeback by submitting Michael Bisping in the third round to capture the 185-pound belt. St. Pierre’s last appearance at UFC 167 did an estimated 637,000 pay-per-view buys.

It was the second best for a card headlined by St. Pierre overall. Only UFC 158, topped by St. Pierre vs. Nick Diaz, did better with 950,000 pay-per-view buys.

UFC 217 also saw T.J. Dillashaw claim bantamweight gold with a second-round stoppage of Cody Garbrandt in the co-main event, while Rose Namajunas upset Joanna Jedrzejczyk to win the strawweight title in another featured bout.

After the conclusion of the event, UFC President Dana White claimed that the card did more than 1 million pay-per-view buys. The promotion is believed to have surpassed the 1 million mark four times in 2016 – and three of those cards were headlined by McGregor.