The 2024 UFL season kicked off this weekend, and the viewership for the four games was a mixed bag.
The four-game slate, with two games airing on Fox and two on ESPN, averaged 1.04 million viewers. That’s down from Week 1 of both the USFL’s debut season in 2022 (1.57 million for four games across Fox, NBC, FS1, and USA) and the XFL’s debut season in 2023 (1.3 million for four games on ABC, ESPN, and FX),
Viewership for the four games peaked on Saturday, with 1.35 million viewers watching St. Louis-Michigan on Fox. Birmingham-Arlington averaged 1.18 million in the preceding window. Sunday on ESPN, 960,000 watched DC-San Antonio, while the schedule closed with 703,000 viewers for Memphis-Houston.
Fox was quick to note that three of the four games topped the USFL/XFL average broadcast viewership from last season.
https://twitter.com/FOXSportsPR/status/1775197660246421629
Competition from college basketball was brutal on both days, with the women’s tournament shining on Saturday and the men’s delivering huge numbers on Sunday.
Whether or not the inaugural UFL season will be considered a success will not be determined by viewership for Week 1 games. And really, as long as viewership for the league doesn’t slide on a week-to-week basis and at least remains somewhat consistent, everyone will probably be somewhat content with the overall results.
[Data via Sports Media Watch]
