The 2023 Royal Rumble was attended by far fewer people than WWE stated during the broadcast of the event.
The January pay-per-view event saw Cody Rhodes and Rhea Ripley win the Men’s and Women’s Rumble matches, while Roman Reigns retained the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against Kevin Owens.
The final segment of the show, which saw Sami Zayn’s tenure with the Bloodline end, has been praised by fans.
The event had an announced attendance of 51,388 people, but Wrestlenomics reports that this figure was significantly inflated.
One WWE employee said the company made an effort to count “anyone with a heartbeat” to boost the attendance figures.
This year’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view event sold 44,569 tickets and it is reported that 2,662 tickets were given away for free as promotional gestures.
The number of fans whose tickets were scanned and entered the building was 42,928.
The 44,569 tickets sold generated $7.3 million in net ticket sales and WWE announced a gate of $7.7 million, which likely includes service fees.
