The WWE PPV numbers are now looked at much differently, due to the arrival of the WWE Network. The feeling within WWE is that the people buying PPV still do so because 1) they lack the Internet connection (rural areas for example) to purchase the WWE Network, 2) older fans that do not trust or subscribe to streaming technology or 3) out of habit. Without the addition of WrestleMania, overall PPV buys for the quarter would be down 432,000 buys from the previous quarter. Of course, the WWE Network had just over 1.3 million paid subscribers as of March 30th, and averaged 927,000 paid subscribers in Q1 of 2015. Here is the breakdown…
* Royal Rumble: 145,000 buys (down 322,000 buys from Q1 2014)
* FastLane / Elimination Chamber: 46,000 buys (down 137,000 buys from Q1 2014)
* WrestleMania: 259,000 buys (Mania was in Q2 in 2014)
* Buys From Prior Events: 55,000 buys (up 27,000 buys from Q1 2014)
* Totals: 505,000 buys (down 172,000 buys from Q1 2014)