Wilder vs. Breazeale Peaked At 990K Viewers

[Ruthless-RKO]

Deontay Wilder didn’t leave much time to build an audience Saturday night, but his spectacular, one-punch, first-round knockout of Dominic Breazeale still drew Showtime’s highest viewership for boxing since his last appearance on the premium cable network.

According to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research, the Wilder-Breazeale bout attracted a peak audience of 990,000 from Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The peak viewership includes those that watched the fight live on television and those that streamed it live.

Their two-minute, 17-second fight, the main event of a three-bout broadcast, drew an average live viewership of 886,000 via linear television and streaming.

A total of 1,100,000 viewers watched Wilder-Breazeale live on TV, live through streaming, On Demand and on replay Sunday morning.

Wilder’s previous appearance on Showtime – an intriguing 10th-round knockout of Luis Ortiz – peaked at 1,200,000 viewers in March 2018. Wilder-Ortiz, which had much more time to build viewership, was watched by an average audience of 1,100,000.

Viewership for Wilder-Breazeale was comparable to the WBC heavyweight champion’s last first-round knockout Showtime televised.

That bout – Wilder’s three-knockdown demolition of Bermane Stiverne in their rematch – peaked at 887,000 viewers and averaged 824,000 from Barclays Center in November 2017. The first bout between Wilder (41-0-1, 40 KOs) and Stiverne, which went the distance, attracted a peak audience of 1,340,000 and an average viewership of 1,240,000 from Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena in January 2015.

Showtime’s telecast of Wilder-Breazeale aired at the same time as Game 3 of the NBA’s Western Conference Finals. That game, which Golden State came back to win against Portland, drew an average of 7,247,000 viewers, the second-highest viewership ESPN ever has attracted for an NBA conference final game.

[oogiebe]

You said it. Not much time to build an audience. But over 10,000,000 replay views on Twitter ,and several million on YouTube since the fight.

[Ruthless-RKO]

You said it. Not much time to build an audience. But over 10,000,000 replay views on Twitter ,and several million on YouTube since the fight.

When you KTFO someone in 1 round. EVERYONE is gonna wanna see what they missed.

I believe the post-fight presser did some very good numbers live on Youtube as well.

Had it gone a few more rounds, there probably would have peaked over 1m easy.

Wonder what Russell-Martínez averaged.

[oogiebe]

When you KTFO someone in 1 round. EVERYONE is gonna wanna see what they missed.

I believe the post-fight presser did some very good numbers live on Youtube as well.

Had it gone a few more rounds, there probably would have peaked over 1m easy.

Wonder what Russell-Martínez averaged.

Exactly right. This fight did a hellava lot for Wilder's reputation and drawing power.

[jamamb]

so 886, 000 averaged

surprised his numbers didnt really change after the fury fight that was called a smash, hes had viral kos before so breazeale is nothing new, he also had a 13m audience for some fox promo before this fight

[Evander]

What did we see from Wilder ?
Bunch of promo's, some core talk a few poses and an elaborate outfit from Deontay ... punches later it's done before Round 1 is finished.
Highlight reel for sports across the nation puts him on the map.
For me it did little to enhance himself as a boxer, he got the win we expected and that's it.

[Ruthless-RKO]

so 886, 000 averaged

surprised his numbers didnt really change after the fury fight that was called a smash, hes had viral kos before so breazeale is nothing new, he also had a 13m audience for some fox promo before this fight

Keeping in the mind the fight lasted less than a round.

[Onetimeonly]

so 886, 000 averaged

surprised his numbers didnt really change after the fury fight that was called a smash, hes had viral kos before so breazeale is nothing new, he also had a 13m audience for some fox promo before this fight

Americans don't like boxing, those that do a lot of them have cancelled Showtime in favor of dazn & ESPN+. Showtime fights are easy enough to stream. Wilder/fury was 2 huge unbeaten heavyweights that can capture some casual fans to catch 'the fight'.

[SenorPipino]

The expected Fury-Wilder "effect" has to be far overrated.

I don't believe Wilder (or Fury) caught any shine from that bout whatsoever. Especially in America.

It was only purchased by 325,000 on US PPV. There really was very limited interest.

The fight itself was totally unremarkable with the exception of 2 rounds.

It did little to raise awareness of Wilder. He's still an obscure athlete in the US.

Those who watched Wilder in his pre-Fury days undoubtedly tuned in to see him dismiss Breazeale.

Those who didn't bother with him back then, ignored this fight too.

Around 1 million viewers is about as good as it will get for Wilder on Showtime.

No matter who he fights or what he accomplishes, there simply isn't enough interest in boxing to expect a larger audience.

[Finkel]

I'm not sure about no shine at all. Seems unduly harsh

But pre-fight the youtube podcasts
Joe Rogan w/ Wilder got 1.5m views
Joe Rogan w/ Fury got 2.5m views

That would suggest Fury was bringing more interest to that fight.

But after the fight, the ESPN deal Fury signed,
and the upped offer Wilder received from Joshua's camp, suggests both their profiles benefitted from the fight

[kbackup408]

The expected Fury-Wilder "effect" has to be far overrated.

I don't believe Wilder (or Fury) caught any shine from that bout whatsoever. Especially in America.

It was only purchased by 325,000 on US PPV. There really was very limited interest.

The fight itself was totally unremarkable with the exception of 2 rounds.

It did little to raise awareness of Wilder. He's still an obscure athlete in the US.

Those who watched Wilder in his pre-Fury days undoubtedly tuned in to see him dismiss Breazeale.

Those who didn't bother with him back then, ignored this fight too.

Around 1 million viewers is about as good as it will get for Wilder on Showtime.

No matter who he fights or what he accomplishes, there simply isn't enough interest in boxing to expect a larger audience.

^ you are being very harsh with this one - yes the numbers aren't translating into dollars but BOTH Wilder's and Fury's profiles have risen - mainstream outlets such as ESPN are debating HW's again which is a positive sign

you have an argument on the economics side but judging profile is a different ball game

[Ruthless-RKO]

The expected Fury-Wilder "effect" has to be far overrated.

I don't believe Wilder (or Fury) caught any shine from that bout whatsoever. Especially in America.

It was only purchased by 325,000 on US PPV. There really was very limited interest.

The fight itself was totally unremarkable with the exception of 2 rounds.

It did little to raise awareness of Wilder. He's still an obscure athlete in the US.

Those who watched Wilder in his pre-Fury days undoubtedly tuned in to see him dismiss Breazeale.

Those who didn't bother with him back then, ignored this fight too.

Around 1 million viewers is about as good as it will get for Wilder on Showtime.

No matter who he fights or what he accomplishes, there simply isn't enough interest in boxing to expect a larger audience.

Yeh. The PPV was $70 or ther bouts.

The highlights and full fight has been viewed many times on Youtube. By the amount of comments and twitter posts there was at the time, there is no doubt that many more watched via illegal streams and there was closed circuit too.

Let’s be fair. HW boxing has been dead on the US for a long time. This was a PPV, the first HW PPV for over 15 years. Let’s give them some credit.

It might have not been the best fight bar 2 rounds like you said, but it’s definitely a memorable fight.

[Onetimeonly]

That fight sucked. It had a memorable moment.

[Thomastearns]

That fight sucked. It had a memorable moment.

That's still one more than Klitschko v Fury.

[SenorPipino]

Most likely it was memorable to UK fans. Especially UK fans of Fury.

In America, it may have been something some people were a bit curious about in the fight's aftermath.

But they quickly forgot about it within a day or two.

Most US sports fans probably didn't even associate the Wilder of the Breazeale fight as the same guy who fought that big British guy some months back.

[Onetimeonly]

That's still one more than Klitschko v Fury.

No question it wasn't that bad.

[KiwiRider]

It's a shame it got so many viewers. It is rewarding Wilder for crap opponents. If they got that many for Brazeale, then unbeaten Kownacki is going to be another big draw for them, and so it continues- the record breaking reign of the the only American heavyweight champion

[SenorPipino]

It's a shame it got so many viewers. It is rewarding Wilder for crap opponents. If they got that many for Brazeale, then unbeaten Kownacki is going to be another big draw for them, and so it continues- the record breaking reign of the the only American heavyweight champion

If Wilder fights Kownascki (KO 1) then the bout might grab an extra 100,000 viewers.

If the public becomes aware of it.

The lure of the white heavyweight.

[gilgamesh]

If Wilder fights Kownascki (KO 1) then the bout might grab an extra 100,000 viewers.

If the public becomes aware of it.

The lure of the white heavyweight.

Polish fight fans tend to rabidly support their guys too. So Kownacki supporters would be out in force. There often seemed to be a lot of Poles in the New Jersey area so if the fight were in Barclay's you could expect a lot of them to show up in support of Kownacki.

[jamamb]

wilders already beat up a few white boys

[gilgamesh]

It's a shame it got so many viewers. It is rewarding Wilder for crap opponents. If they got that many for Brazeale, then unbeaten Kownacki is going to be another big draw for them, and so it continues- the record breaking reign of the the only American heavyweight champion

It's good that it's getting viewers really. It means Wilder is starting to be a name that matters more to the general public. The numbers will double or triple when he's fighting an opponent that people actually think is dangerous.

[jamamb]

It's a shame it got so many viewers. It is rewarding Wilder for crap opponents. If they got that many for Brazeale, then unbeaten Kownacki is going to be another big draw for them, and so it continues- the record breaking reign of the the only American heavyweight champion

i was surprised it didnt do more then it did tbh. it isnt really a better number he was doing before the fury fight push and some big promos on fox

[jamamb]

It's good that it's getting viewers really. It means Wilder is starting to be a name that matters more to the general public. The numbers will double or triple when he's fighting an opponent that people actually think is dangerous.

no chance hes doing double on showtime, needs a bigger platform for that, ortiz did 'only' 1.2m

[gilgamesh]

no chance hes doing double on showtime, needs a bigger platform for that, ortiz did 'only' 1.2m

If it's truly a mega fight like Fury or AJ it'd be PPV, and it'd do more than this. Wilder vs Fury 2 would probably sell better now than it did the first time.

I can't really imagine AJ vs Wilder being too much more marketable at a later time than it is right now, but those are the ones it'd take to get maximum numbers obviously.

[oogiebe]

It's a shame it got so many viewers. It is rewarding Wilder for crap opponents. If they got that many for Brazeale, then unbeaten Kownacki is going to be another big draw for them, and so it continues- the record breaking reign of the the only American heavyweight champion

Best way to become a crap opponent is to be beaten by Wilder. While I rate AJ over Wilder, if Deontay won, I'm sure we'd be seeing all sorts of reasons why it wasn't legit.