Grateful Dead Farewell Concerts Were The Most-Watched Music PPV Event Ever

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Grateful Dead Farewell Concerts Were The Most-Watched Music PPV Event Ever

Scott Olson/Getty Images

The Grateful Dead’s farewell shows in Santa Clara and Chicago drew a crowd of over 350,000 to the locations themselves, but that audience becomes even bigger when you factor in the pay-per-view audience that couldn’t physically be at the concerts but still wanted to take part in the experience.

A new report from Billboard says that it was the most-watched PPV music event ever, with the five-night broadcast of Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years Of Grateful Dead pulling in more than 400,000 buyers through either cable/satellite subscriptions or online streams. And considering that a lot of those buyers in turn held gatherings at bars, theaters, and households, the number of people who actually watched the concerts is much larger than that.

Check out Alex Bleeker (of Real Estate)’s review of the final show.

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