After a hugely promoted first episode that featured celebrity appearances, championship matches, and Hulk Hogan getting booed, the viewership numbers of WWE Raw on Netflix have plummeted a distressing 37%.
More News: Baron Corbin Confirms New Ring Name Following WWE Departure
Raw's debut on Netflix generated impressive viewership numbers but saw a notable decline in its second week.
According to Netflix's Tudum site, the January 13 episode drew 3.7 million views globally, down 37% from the 5.9 million views garnered by the premiere on January 6.
This drop aligns with a common trend for new programs, where initial numbers tend to be inflated before stabilizing. The total hours viewed also fell from 17.7 million to 8.2 million over the same period.
One contributing factor to the decrease is the difference in runtime; the January 6 episode was about 30 minutes longer than the January 13 show, which could affect the total number of hours watched.
Despite the decline, the early numbers are still impressive compared to Raw's traditional viewership on USA Network.
Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, expressed his satisfaction with the premiere's performance, noting, "Our first week [with Raw], we drew about 5 million views, which is about two times the audience that Monday Night Raw was getting in linear television, pretty consistent with how we modeled it, how we'd hope to build the audience for the league."
Sarandos also pointed out that non-live viewership had increased by 25%, especially outside of U.S. time zones, highlighting the success of Raw's global appeal.
He mentioned that markets like the U.K., Canada, Mexico, Australia, and Brazil have emerged as key areas for growth, with Brazil and Mexico standing out as unexpectedly strong markets for WWE content.
The 5 million views in the first week were a significant boost compared to Raw's U.S. television numbers, where the show has averaged about 1.2 million households per episode in 2024.
Sarandos remarked on this, saying, "In the U.S., our viewing of Monday Night Raw was as big as the Monday Night Raw viewing has been in 5 years. So we're super thrilled about how that's going and how that's coming out."
However, despite the initial success, viewership data beyond Netflix's Tudum charts is harder to track, particularly in the U.S. where Nielsen's ratings provide more specific insights.
Tudum only provides global data, and while Netflix has highlighted that 70% of Raw's live viewing came from the U.S., the international audience seems to be a growing force.
Sarandos noted, "We also saw that the non-live viewing... grew by 25%, mostly outside of the U.S. time zones," indicating that Raw's reach is expanding globally.
Looking ahead, Sarandos acknowledged that WWE's success on Netflix fits into the company's broader strategy of bringing sports and entertainment content to a younger, more global audience.
He compared Raw's early performance to the NFL's streaming success, saying, "We want to be able to bring value to the sport like we have to date with WWE certainly, but like we have with the NFL too, where we were basically able to bring a big audience, a young audience, a more global audience than linear television."
While it's still early to predict where Raw's viewership will settle, Netflix's Tudum charts and Sarandos' comments suggest that WWE's move to the streaming platform has been a positive step in reaching new, international audiences.
Still, it is unlikely that the shareholders will love seeing such a huge drop in numbers in Week 2. It'll be interesting to see what this coming Monday shows.
More News:
WWE Superstar Reveals Major Reason Behind Raw Absence
Corey Graves Returns to NXT After Calling Out WWE
For more on WWE, head to Newsweek Sports.
English (US) ·