AEW Double or Nothing sold an estimated 115,000 pay-per-view buys globally, grossed revenues just short of Revolution

Header image courtesy of All Elite Wrestling

All Elite Wrestling’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view on May 30 likely came just short of the company’s highest gross revenue from a single event. The show drew about $6 million total for AEW and its pay-per-view distributors and sold 115,000 buys on all platforms globally, by our estimate.

The record high is probably still held by the previous pay-per-view event, Revolution, which we estimate grossed just under $7 million. That show, on March 7, attracted greater pay-per-view sales but sold fewer tickets with a socially-distanced capacity.

Double or Nothing was held at full capacity at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida. It sold about 4,700 tickets, generating approximately $300,000, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. At the same venue, just 1,150 tickets were sold for Revolution.

After carriers including FITE, B/R Live, and various cable systems collect the majority of the pay-per-view sales, each of the two events likely netted AEW around $3 million in revenue. 

Full breakdowns of our estimates for both events are at the end of this article.

We’re also raising our estimate of the Revolution event from 125,000 buys to 135,000. The Observer’s recent estimate that Revolution sold 158,000 buys is 10% to 20% high, we were told.

Double or Nothing appears to be AEW’s second-highest-selling pay-per-view in its history. Our estimate of this event and all earlier AEW pay-per-view sales were determined based on information from people with knowledge of the sales.

Merchandise sales estimates of $71,000 for Double or Nothing and $21,000 for Revolution are based on an assumption of $15 and $18 in merchandise revenue per paid attendee, respectively. The average sales per capita for WWE events is about $10, according to public filings. We believe per capita sales for major events like pay-per-views are higher than average and we were told Revolution performed better in this area than most AEW pay-per-views.

Estimated revenue breakdown of AEW’s two most recent PPVs

Dollar values are rounded to the next lowest order of magnitude.

AEW Double or Nothing (5/30/2021)	AEW Revolution 2021 (3/7/2021)
Pay-per-view	Pay-per-view
Domestic buys: 80,500 x Domestic average price: $50 = Domestic gross revenue: $4,000,000 x AEW average domestic split: 45% = AEW domestic net PPV revenue: $1,800,000	Domestic buys: 94,500 x Domestic average price: $50 = Domestic gross revenue: $4,700,000 x AEW average domestic split: 45% = AEW domestic net PPV revenue: $2,100,000
International buys: 34,500 x International average price: $50 = International gross revenue: $1,700,000 x AEW average international split: 45% = AEW international net PPV revenue: $780,000	International buys: 40,500 x International average price: $50 = International gross revenue $2,000,000 x AEW average international split: 45% = AEW international net PPV revenue: $910,000
Worldwide buys: 115,000 x Worldwide average price: $50 = Worldwide gross PPV revenue: $5,700,000 x AEW average worldwide split: 45% = AEW worldwide net PPV revenue: $2,600,000	Worldwide buys: 135,000 x Worldwide average price: $50 = Worldwide gross PPV revenue: $6,700,000 x AEW average worldwide split: 45% = AEW worldwide net PPV revenue: $3,000,000
Tickets	Tickets
Paid attendance: 4,700 Average ticket price: $64 Ticket revenue: $300,000	Paid attendance: 1,150 Average ticket price: $65 Ticket revenue : $75,000
Venue merchandise	Venue merchandise
Revenue per capita: $15 Venue merchandise revenue: $71,000	Revenue per capita: $18 Venue merchandise revenue: $21,000
OVERALL	OVERALL
Total gross revenue: $6,100,000 Total net revenue to AEW: $3,000,000	Total gross revenue: $6,800,000 Total net revenue to AEW: $3,100,000

Note: Net revenue is not a measure of profit. ‘Net revenue’ refers to revenues AEW receives after PPV carriers take their share. An estimate of the profitability of an event would require an estimate of the event’s expenses, which this article doesn’t attempt to do.