WWE debuts on Netflix to about double the size of its recent U.S. cable audience

WRESTLENOMICS REPORT 1/10/2025

In this issue:

• WWE debuts on Netflix to about double the size of its recent U.S. cable audience

• WWE sets a new record arena gate of $4.8 million at the Intuit Dome

• AEW debuts on Max

• New judge assigned to Grant case

• Facts about AEW’s fan popularity trends

• Where’s AEW Shockwave?

• Opinion: AEW’s struggles with leadership and identity

• State of the business

WWE debuts on Netflix to about double the size of its recent U.S. cable audience

Netflix announced on Thursday that the premier of WWE Monday Night Raw was watched by 2.6 million U.S. households, live+same-day, according to its third-party analytics partner VideoAmp.

Analysis: The measurement methodology is close to how Nielsen would measure viewership, and we do have Nielsen data for households watching Raw throughout its history. Suffice to say this was the biggest audience for Raw in the U.S. since 2018.

Despite my urging of skepticism of any metrics WWE or Netflix would announce following the debut, they provided data that does allow us to compare the performance on Netflix to that of Raw on the USA Network.

The audience for Raw in its premiere on Netflix was about twice the size of the audience watching on USA Network throughout 2024, when the show averaged 1.22 million households. That’s in the U.S. That’s live+same-day, the same as Netflix’s announced number.

It’s notable that the data, though it is not from Nielsen, is from third-party VideoAmp. And it is true that VideoAmp recently measured the Golden Globes as having a 9% larger audience than Nielsen, which suggests VideoAmp might be more generous than Nielsen.

Even so, if we assume Nielsen is more accurate and VideoAmp also measured the Raw premiere as 9% too high, that would give us a household measurement for the premiere of about 2.3 million or 2.4 million households. Still around double the average of Raw on the USA Network in 2024.