This week, WWE announced record viewership for this weekend’s WrestleMania 39 event on Peacock.
Per the company, viewership for Saturday’s first night of the event was up 28% on the previous record audience. The second night bettered that record even further, increasing by 33%.
Specific viewership numbers for each night were not announced.
Since 2020, WrestleMania has been a two-night event. It’s exclusively been broadcast on Peacock since 2022, with 2021’s event airing on both Peacock and pay-per-view.
Ultimately, WWE Network’s move to Peacock has increased the overall reach of the company’s former pay-per-view events. The paywall hasn’t been completely dropped, but it has been lowered to a far more reasonable amount, allowing for more interested parties who would have never shelled out for a PPV or subscribed to WWE Network to watch.
The announcement of record viewership for the event comes on the heels of Endeavor bringing the company under its ever-widening umbrella. Both WWE and the UFC, their new sister company, have massive streaming deals – WWE with NBCUniversal, and the UFC with ESPN. The two companies have taken drastically different routes with their streaming offerings, leading to quite different price points.
It remains to be seen if the two companies will align their deals more closely in the future. But given the viewership growth for WrestleMania this year, fans probably wouldn’t be too keen on shelling out more money for live events in the future.
[WWE]
