This past Saturday, WWE held Payback premium live event at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Today, WWE issued a press release and stated that the show has become the most-watched and highest-grossing Payback in the company’s history.
WWE confirmed that 12,468 fans had attended the show, which made the largest gate for any Payback. Viewership of Payback increased by 36% compared to the record set in 2016. Payback also broke the company’s all-time event merchandise record. 144 million fans have watched Payback across all the WWE’s social media platforms.
STAMFORD, Conn., September 5, 2023 – WWE® (NYSE: WWE) today announced that Payback, which emanated from PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, became the most-watched and highest-grossing Payback in company history. The premium live event set new records for viewership, gate and merchandise.
Viewership of Payback was up 36 percent versus the previous record set in 2016. With 12,468 in attendance, it marked the largest gate ever for any Payback, up 13 percent versus the prior record set in Chicago in 2016. Payback also became the highest-grossing WWE event ever held in Pittsburgh.
In addition, Payback broke the all-time event merchandise record. In partnership with special event retail partner Fanatics, merchandise sales were up 182 percent versus the previous record set in 2017.
2023 Payback was also the most-viewed social Payback of all time with a combined 146 million social views, up 44 percent from the previous record set in 2020. The most-viewed moment across social platforms was Cody Rhodes announcing Jey Uso would be joining the Monday Night Raw roster which generated more than seven million social views across all platforms in one day.
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