Revealed: Three million people watched Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor illegally

The bout was one of the most talked about fights in history with PPV and TV revenue expected to have broken the $400m barrier

Nearly three million people streamed the fight illegally (Getty)

Nearly three million people watched the Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor fight illegally, it has been revealed.

Undefeated Mayweather took on UFC star McGregor at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, stopping the Irishman in the tenth round of an absorbing contest to move his unblemished career record to 50-0.

​The bout was one of the most talked about fights in history with PPV and TV revenue expected to have broken the $400m barrier.

Not everyone paid the $99 US price to watch it, however, and online security firm Irdeto have identified 239 streams that redistributed the fight to an estimated 2,930,598 viewers.

"Live sports are a cornerstone of global piracy, with thousands of sites providing illegal content attracting millions of viewers," Rory O’Connor, Senior Vice President of Cybersecurity Services, Irdeto said.

"When combatting live sports piracy, speed in disrupting piracy is essential. This is especially the case with premium events like this past weekend’s Mayweather vs McGregor boxing match."

Showtime, which broadcasted the fight on pay-per-view in the US, tried to stop streams through the courts ahead of the clash and had success in taking many of them down, but despite that the fight was expected to be the most pirated event in history.

Such pre-emptive strikes are very rare, but are useful as a way of dealing with big sporting events – and was seen in previous instances like the Mayweather vs Pacquiao fight.

It is necessary to try and take down copyright infringement before it happens because such events are primarily made available live, meaning that there can be little time to stop such piracy happening once the even has actually begun.