WWE recently released initial estimates for the 2012 Royal Rumble, which was a mixed bag of results. There were 438,000 total PPV buys for the Rumble, which would be the lowest buy rate for the Royal Rumble in 14 years. However, 272,000 buys came from domestic U.S. households, which is in line with the prior four years that resulted in 281,000 (2011); 259,000 (2010), 288,000 (2009) and 403,000 (2008, where any of the other succeeding years will look bad).
By comparison, last year’s numbers were 476,000 worldwide and 281,000 domestic, meaning that for 2012 WWE faced a 16.4% drop outside North America and a 3.2% drop within North America. The 2011 Royal Rumble had the hook of a 40-man battle royal main event bur this year the number went back down to the tradition number of 30 entrants. Other than that however, there was a stronger undercard this year, just not stronger results.
Again, these are also initial estimates for 2012, and WWE tends to get an increase when final results are tallied.
