The Numbers Behind AEW Revolution’s Huge Success
AEW Revolution did big business for the company.
AEW Revolution saw Sting winning his final match in front of over 16,000 fans when he teamed with Darby Allin to defend the Tag Team Titles against The Young Bucks. The show also saw Samoa Joe overcome both Hangman Adam Page and Swerve Strickland to retain the AEW World Championship, while Will Ospreay scored a huge win over Konosuke Takeshita in an instant classic.
The event received a positive reaction from fans and critics alike, and it looks like this has also translated into good business for AEW. During the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer revealed that pay-per-view buys were up from December’s World’s End event, and it could end up with the third-highest buys in company history.
“It looks good. Right now, it’s 25% up from Worlds End when it comes to domestic streaming on BR. [It’s] 21% up on television, as of today, and I’ll get more updated numbers tomorrow, but that says as of today. Then the international through Triller was not up as much as the domestic for whatever reason.
“But yeah, it’s looking like it will probably be the third or fourth biggest in company history. The biggest, of course, was the Punk debut at All Out 2021. The second biggest was All In last year from Wembley. The third biggest was the Revolution show from two years ago, which was Adam Page against Adam Cole and MJF against CM Punk.”
Meltzer went on to explain how Revolution 2024 could beat the 2022 edition of the event.
“So that one [Revolution 2022] ended up at 175k. This one it’s possible, depending on late buys, I mean, the whole key always is always late buys because based on word of mouth and things like that, we’ll see. It could be that it could fall short of that. But it looks like it’s gonna be third or fourth biggest of all time.”
Merchandise sales were also a big success, beating out every show except for All In at Wembley Stadium.
“The merchandise at the show was the biggest for any AEW show in history, except for Wembley. Like 22 bucks a head. $21.84 a head, something like ridiculously high numbers. So, it’s mostly Sting merchandise and the concession numbers. Food and drink purchases in the building were incredibly high. So yeah, the food and drink purchases were incredibly high when people were sitting there for a five-hour show. So, it was an extremely successful night for the Coliseum. Extremely successful night for AEW as well.”
AEW Secures Kazuchika Okada
AEW will be looking to build on the momentum from Revolution in the coming weeks. Buzz around the company continued after AEW revealed that Kazuchika Okada is All Elite on Dynamite. The former NJPW star surprised fans when he attacked Eddie Kingston on the show and aligned himself with The Young Bucks to form a new version of The Elite.
H/T to Inside The Ropes for the above transcription.