KSI's boxing return drew around 230,000 pay-per-view buys on DAZN in the UK and Ireland, Mirror Fighting can reveal.
The YouTube star was out of the ring for almost three years before fighting twice on one night at a sold-out O2 Arena last month; the first time the venue was full for a boxing event since Josh Taylor defeated Regis Prograis in 2019.
But DAZN's pay-per-view set-up may have caused issues for fans looking to watch KSI's return with the streaming service opting for a 'double-paywall' system. Fans in KSI's main markets, including the UK, had to subscribe to DAZN for at least a month as well as paying a further £12 in order to watch the fight. Fans outside of the UK, Ireland, Canada and America could watch the fight as part of their monthly subscription to DAZN, and the viewership number is unknown in those territories.
A viewership of 230,000 would mean KSI's boxing return failed to beat Jake Paul's PPV rates for his bout with Ben Askren or his first fight with Tyron Woodley, which both attracted in excess of 500,000 buys. KSI may have squeezed by Paul's most recent outing, his hastily-arranged rematch with Woodley, which is believed to have sold around 200,000 at a $60 price point, or around £52. US and Canada PPV numbers are still unknown.
KSI's fight was marred by a number of controversies and pullouts, and ended up being very different to the original proposal. Alex Wassabi, a YouTuber with around 15million followers and a proven PPV draw when he made his debut against KSI's younger brother Deji, was the original opponent but pulled out due to a concussion.
Chart-topping superstar KSI had to quickly enlist former pal and fellow rapper Swarmz as his new opponent, which outraged fans due to his lack of boxing experience. He then decided to sell a "two fights in one night" gimmick, where he brought in a professional boxer to face him after he quickly dispatched of the musician.
However, even that took a hit when his original opponent, Bulgarian Ivan Nikolov, was forced out of the fight due to accusations of being a white supremacist and Neo-Nazi. He had held a 3-17-2 record, but new opponent Luis Pineda was brought in with just a few days notice and struggled to stay upright in an embarrassing main event showing.
Even the undercard was effected when rapper Blueface, a major multi-platinum-selling rapper in America, was forced out of the co-main event against Thomas 'Faze Temperrr' Oliveira. Instead, the lesser-known but better-skilled YouTuber Slim Albaher stepped up and thunderously knocked Oliveira out within two rounds to make a name for himself.
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Paul faced similar issues with his last PPV outing against Woodley. He had initially been scheduled to face Tommy Fury after almost a year of build-up, in what would have been his first test against a 'legitimate' boxer.
However, Fury was injured and pulled out two weeks from fight night. Having already been beaten in a drab affair four months prior after a lengthy UFC losing streak, the former UFC welterweight champion was drawn in for a less appealing rematch that Paul admits underperformed at the box office.
KSI's boxing return did, however, outperform every other YouTube boxing event this year by over double the buys. Showstar Boxing, where Wassabi faced the Brit's younger brother Deji, drew just over 100,000 PPV buys, as did IDubbbz vs Dr Mike at the Creator Clash. Kingpyn Boxing, with lesser-known Tik Tok stars Ed Matthews and Simple Simon in the main event did slightly less.
DAZN responded by pointing to the fact the event has garnered more than 33m views through YouTube after the fights were uploaded to the streaming site. The broadcaster have said that the event was "one of the most watched in the UK and Ireland" since they launched in the market back in December 2020.
