WWE has released preliminary buyrate info for the Q1 pay-per-view events that include Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber. While exact numbers aren't available, the 2014 Royal Rumble PPV did slightly better than the 2012 event of the same name, and should come in around 450,000 buys. This more or less falls in line with previous years, except for the large 512,000 buyrate that the WWE Championship match between The Rock and CM Punk drew in 2013.
The Elimination Chamber fared about the same, drawing slightly less than 2012 and 2013, probably somewhere between 165,000 to 170,000 buys. Last year's Elimination Chamber pay-per-view saw the Rock-Cena rematch which saw a small increase in viewership. These were the last two WWE pay-per-view events prior to the launch of the WWE Network, which will of course have a major impact on the buyrates going forward.
With the success The Rock brought the buyrates during his last run, WWE will obviously be banking heavily on their big-name mainstream icons for this year's WrestleMania XXX pay-per-view in New Orleans, including Hulk Hogan, John Cena, The Undertaker and of course, the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
