KSI and Logan Paul probably made $11 million from boxing match

Logan Paul.
YouTube/Logan
Paul

• Business Insider has calculated that YouTubers KSI and
  Logan Paul made as much as $11 million from their boxing match
  on Saturday.
• Media estimates suggest around 20,000 fans attended the
  match, and more than 770,000 paid to watch the live stream on
  YouTube.
• The pair will have made even more cash from a uCast
  stream of the fight, as well as merchandise sales, and ad
  revenue from videos in the run-up to the fight.
• They will be able to double their money next February,
  when they plan a rematch in the US.

The boxing match between YouTubers KSI and Logan Paul may have
resulted in a draw, but the event was doubtless a win for their
bank balances.

According to The Times, almost 20,000 fans attended the
boxing match at Manchester Arena on Saturday night.
And The Verge calculated that around 773,000 people watched
the £7.50/$10 pay-per-view stream cumulatively on YouTube.

Business Insider estimates that this tots up to as much as £8.3
million, or $11 million, in revenue. Here’s how we got there:

Logan
Paul in action against KSI at the Manchester
Arena.
REUTERS/Tom
Jacobs

With an average ticket price of £135, and rounding up the number
of attendees to 20,000, we generously estimated that the live
event pulled in £2.7 million ($3.5 million).

And if 773,000 people paid £7.50 or $10 each to watch the
livestream on YouTube, that brought in £5.6 million, or $7.7
million.

That gives us a total figure of £8.3 million or a little over $11
million.

We should emphasise that this is pretty approximate. The average
ticket price figure is skewed higher by the smaller number of
£495 VIP tickets sold to die-hard fans.

And our total excludes revenue from ads against YouTube videos in
the run-up to the fight, money from merchandise sales, and any
revenue from the uCast stream, available to those who were unable
to access YouTube. All of these will have brought in more cash.

It also doesn’t mean KSI and Logan Paul have necessarily walked
away with $5.5 million each. Our calculations exclude any
overheads for staging the event, including travel and staff
costs.

The pair also lost out on substantial amounts of money. The Verge
reported that more than 1 million viewers watched illegal,
pirated streams on game streaming site Twitch. That’s a potential
loss of £7.5 million or $10 million in streaming revenue alone.

It’s a substantial wad of cash for two internet celebrities who
are not professional boxers, and is comparable to a professional
boxing match.
According to The Mirror, the 2017 fight in Wembley between
Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko generated £8 million in
ticket sales.

KSI and Logan Paul will have the chance to double their money in
February, when they fight again at an unconfirmed venue in the
US.