All the mainstream coverage of WrestleMania and WWE definitely paid off.
The company issued a release touting various audience records set by their WrestleMania 31 event and surrounding programming. Included in that was the episode of Monday Night Raw the night after Mania. Raw reached an average audience of 5.4 million viewers over three hours – the best viewership since the 1000th episode special on July 23rd, 2012. To put that number in perspective, Raw averaged less than 4 million viewers the week prior to WrestleMania.
Additionally, WWE says 1.3 million households watched WrestleMania on the WWE Network, which matches the recently released subscriber count for the network and amounts to the biggest audience in the event’s history. However, in spite of the growth to 1.3 million subscribers, WWE stock still dropped once again in a sign that the promotion still needs to reach new paying customers.
WWE hasn’t seen this kind of good publicity and popularity in years. And yes, it’s been helped in the short term by holding its biggest event and getting coverage from ESPN and other sports networks. The trick will be whether or not WWE can create some new fans out of all the publicity and continue to grow their subscriber base and TV ratings.
[WWE]
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