WWE held a conference earlier today (Thurs., May 2, 2013) to announce its first quarter business results and that means updating the pay-per-view (PPV) buy numbers for the two events held early in the year, the Royal Rumble, which took place on Jan. 27 in Phoenix, Arizona, and the Elimination Chamber, which took place on Feb. 17 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Here are the updated numbers:
Royal Rumble: 512,000
Elimination Chamber: 213,000
For comparison's sake, here's how those numbers compare to past years:
Royal Rumble 2012 - 443,000 buys
Royal Rumble 2011 - 446,000 buys
Royal Rumble 2010 - 462,000 buys
Elimination Chamber 2012 - 178,000 buys
Elimination Chamber 2011 - 199,000 buys
Elimination Chamber 2010 - 285,000 buys
This year saw the Rumble and Chamber events carried by the program between The Rock and CM Punk, who feuded for the WWE championship. The Rumble, of course, also has the Royal Rumble match itself, which is consistently the second biggest drawing card for the company every year. This years match was won by John Cena, setting up the main event of WrestleMania 29 where he would ultimately go on to defeat The Rock once and for all, taking the WWE title and sending "The Great One" packing for Hollywood.
There isn't much more to glean here than there was when the initial numbers came out other than the fact that, well, The Rock is good for business, whether any of us like it or not.
Deal with it.