WWE Payback 2023 Sets Handful Of Records For Premium Live Events

WWE's Payback 2023 premium live event has set new records for viewership, gate, and merchandise.

According to a press release published by WWE this morning, this past Saturday night's show became the most-watched and highest-grossing Payback in history. The Stamford, Connecticut-based promotion said that viewership was up 36 percent compared to the record-setting Payback 2016 event.

Regarding attendance, 12,468 fans packed into the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to record WWE's largest gate ever for a Payback show. The gate was up 13 percent from the previous record set by Payback 2016 at the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois. Additionally, Payback became the highest-grossing WWE event to be held in the city of Pittsburgh.

Meanwhile, the all-time Payback merchandise record was broken. WWE said that merch sales were up 182 percent compared to Payback in 2017, which initially set the all-time event merchandise record for the premium live event.

This past weekend's event was also the most-viewed social Payback ever, with the promotion recording 146 million views across various social media platforms, which was up 44 percent compared to the previous record set by the 2020 Payback show. It was also noted that a clip of Cody Rhodes introducing Jey Uso as the newest member of the "WWE Raw" roster at Payback "generated more than seven million social views across all platforms in one day."

Payback was headlined by Seth "Freakin" Rollins retaining the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura.