UFC News: WWE Outdoes UFC by $400M in New Report Despite Massive $4.5B Gap in Valuation

With a trajectory spanning almost three decades, leaving behind controversies in its heydays, the UFC emerged as the biggest combat sports promotion. The promotion, led by Dana White, edged past ONE Championship to become the most valued MMA organization in the world. Yet, despite being valued at $11.3 billion, recent reports show that the UFC’s revenue in 2023 fell short of the revenue of their professional wrestling counterpart promotion, WWE.

In 2023, the UFC and WWE came together to form the TKO Group Holdings to form a wider ecosystem in the combat sports sphere. Since then, both promotions have seen garnering record numbers across several events. However, WWE edged past the UFC in terms of revenue, and the number is a quite significant amount!

WWE earns more revenue in 2023 than the UFC

Forbes recently released a new article that ranked the biggest combat sports promotion according to their market value in 2023. Without a shadow of a doubt, Dana White’s UFC found itself in the first place and was the only promotion with an 11-figure valuation. The total revenue of Dana White’s promotion in 2023 amounted to $1.29 billion. The UFC had a significantly higher revenue than the second-best MMA promotion, ONE Championship, which earned a total of $130 million last year. Yet, WWE apparently banked more money!

WWE saw a change in regime with Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque leading the charge on the creative front ever since Vince McMahon stepped down due to heinous allegations of misconduct. Although the professional wrestling giants were valued at $6.8 billion, they managed to out-earn the UFC by a considerable margin and garnered a revenue of $1.33 billion in 2023. Meanwhile, the scene was quite different when TKO disclosed their annual results, where the UFC led the charge over WWE.

The TKO Group’s annual report saw UFC being ahead of WWE

According to the report shared by the TKO Group, their total revenue of 2023 amounted to $1.7 billion, from which $1.3 billion came via the UFC while the rest came from WWE. However, it is important to note the report contains Dana White’s promotion’s whole year earnings, but it is not the same for WWE. The revenue details included WWE’s share from September 12, 2023, to the end of last year.

Nonetheless, it is also important to note that Dana White saw his promotion’s revenue increase by 13 percent from 2022. Moreover, it was reported that the promotion had made $600 million in the first half of 2023 alone. Hence, there is no doubt that the UFC found themselves at the top in the yearly report since the merger took place in around the final quarter of last year.

The UFC has clearly proven to be the top dog when it comes to the combat sports sphere. But the professional wrestling world is a different game altogether. The element of entertainment and storytelling has added to WWE’s longevity for more than 60 years and with the regime change, they have shattered box office records on multiple occasions. It remains to be seen how 2024 shapes up for both promotions.