Photo: WWE
WWE WrestleMania 40 on Peacock
Sat, Apr. 6 and Sun, Apr. 7, 2024
ESTIMATED TV VIEWERSHIP
Based on NBCUniversal’s release touting WrestleMania attracted “1.3 billion live minutes across both nights”, we can use WrestleMania 40’s combined run time of 469 minutes to calculate that 2.7 million to 2.9 million Peacock accounts (not to be confused with viewers) were watching WrestleMania during an average minute on Saturday and Sunday night.
Night 1 was up 26% from last year and Night 2 was up 30% in average minute audience, according to NBCU. If we take the middle of those deltas, 28%, that suggests WrestleMania 39 last year was watched by an average of 2.1 million to 2.3 million accounts.
This doesn’t include any viewership of WrestleMania internationally, as Peacock is available only in the U.S.
As much as we would like to compare these viewership numbers to traditional TV viewership of Raw and Smackdown, these viewership numbers refer to accounts and not viewers. It’s difficult to estimate the number of viewers watching WrestleMania without knowing the average number of viewers per account. The average number of viewers would naturally be higher than the number of accounts watching, as viewers per account would presumably be some value greater than 1.0.
NBCUniversal clarified to Wrestlenomics that the above-mentioned 1.3 billion minutes of watch time refers to the number of accounts watching WrestleMania and does not refer to the number of viewers watching for that amount of time. We asked NBCU and WWE if our calculation that 2.7 million to 2.9 million accounts on average watched WrestleMania 40 was accurate but neither responded.
For more imperfect comparison points, the standalone WWE Network peaked at 2.12 million worldwide paid and trial subscribers immediately after WrestleMania 2018, with maybe 70% of those in the U.S. or roughly 1.5 million. In the pay-per-view-only era, WrestleMania X-7 in 2001 had the record for highest domestic (U.S. and Canada) pay-per-view buys with 970,000, when the PPV price point was $39.95.
WWE’s press release reported viewership for WrestleMania was up 41%, more than the 26% and 30% increase stated in the Peacock statement. WWE may be referencing an increase in a measurement other than watch time, possibly the number of unique accounts that watched some part of either broadcast.
Nielsen made an exception and tracked streaming viewership for NFL games on Peacock in the manner Nielsen does for traditional TV viewership. The NFL Wildcard game (Chiefs vs. Dolphins) that aired exclusively on Peacock on January 13 was watched by 22.86 million viewers, as reported by SportsMediaWatch and others. We don’t know how many accounts on average were watching the game, which prevents us from making a like-to-like comparison with WrestleMania. Same for the Week 16 regular season Bills vs. Chargers game that aired only on Peacock on Saturday night December 23, which averaged 7.33 million viewers. Both NFL games also aired on the teams’ local broadcast affiliates.
How we calculated viewership for WrestleMania 40 and 39:
LIVE EVENTS
WWE WrestleMania Night 1
- Saturday, April 6, 2024
- Philadelphia, PA at Lincoln Financial Field
- Estimated tickets distributed: 69,200
WWE WrestleMania Night 2
- Sunday, April 7, 2024
- Philadelphia, PA at Lincoln Financial Field
- Estimated tickets distributed: 69,652
Estimated tickets distributed data from WrestleTix.
WrestleMania 40 had a gate of about $38.5 million, which implies an average of $19.3 million each night. This likely means Night 1 and Night 2 are the new record holders for the highest single-day gates in pro wrestling history, not adjusting for inflation.
WWE announced the gate for WrestleMania 40 was 78% higher than that of WrestleMania 39, which WWE itself disclosed the combined two-day gate was $21.6 million in a press release last year, which implies a $38.5 million gate, which was not explicitly stated in WWE’s press release for this year’s events.
The all-time inflation-adjusted pro wrestling gate record is held by WrestleMania 32 in Arlington, Texas. WWE said at the time that event generated $17.3 million in 2016, which is worth $22 million in today’s money. WrestleMania in 2019 in East Rutherford, New Jersey, is #2, which generated $16.9 million at the time, or $21 million in today’s money. Taking inflation into account, Night 1 and Night 2 of this year’s WrestleMania are the #3 and #4 gates of all-time.
DIGITAL
As of 2:07 pm, Apr 12
Most-viewed YouTube videos on WWE’s official channel:
WRESTLEMANIA NIGHT 1
- Cody Rhodes & Seth “Freakin” Rollins vs. Rock & Roman Reigns: WrestleMania XL Saturday highlights: 2,523,541
- Full WrestleMania XL Saturday highlights: 2,398,349
- Jey Uso vs. Jimmy Uso: WrestleMania XL Saturday highlights: 1,026,487
- Rhea Ripley vs. Becky Lynch – WWE Women’s World Championship: WrestleMania XL Saturday highlights: 974,551
- Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill & Naomi vs. Damage CTRL: WrestleMania XL Saturday highlights: 898,639
- Roman Reigns Spears The Rock!: WrestleMania XL Saturday highlights: 880,391
- Rhea Ripley and Motionless in White rock out at WrestleMania: WrestleMania XL Saturday highlights: 841,124
- Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship Six-Pack Ladder Match: WrestleMania XL Saturday highlights: 832,925
WRESTLEMANIA NIGHT 2
- Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes — Bloodline Rules Match: WrestleMania XL Sunday highlights: 8,544,990
- The Rock and John Cena come face-to-face at WrestleMania XL: WrestleMania XL Sunday highlights: 2,656,270
- Full WrestleMania XL Sunday highlights: 2,587,078
- The Undertaker delivers an epic Chokeslam to The Rock: WrestleMania XL Sunday highlights: 2,394,544
- Cody Rhodes conquers The Bloodline to win the WWE Universal Title: WrestleMania XL Sunday highlights: 1,950,512
- Randy Orton RKOs IShowSpeed on the announce table: WrestleMania XL Sunday highlights: 1,940,069
- Damian Priest cashes in on Drew McIntyre after CM Punk beatdown: WrestleMania XL Sunday highlights: 1,481,070
- Seth “Freakin” Rollins vs Drew McIntyre — World Heavyweight Match: WrestleMania XL Sunday highlights: 749,915
RECEPTION
As of 2:25 pm, Apr 12
WrestleMania Saturday – Event rating:
- Cagematch.net voter rating: 6.76 (599 votes)
WrestleMania Saturday – Match ratings:
- 8.50 (833 votes) – Sami Zayn vs. Gunther (c)
- 7.52 (731 votes) – A-Town Down Under (Austin Theory & Grayson Waller) and Awesome Truth (R-Truth & The Miz) vs. The Judgment Day (Damian Priest & Finn Balor) (c) and #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) and The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) and New Catch Republic (Pete Dunne & Tyler Bate)
- 7.40 (732 votes) – Becky Lynch vs. Rhea Ripley (c)
- 7.33 (801 votes) – Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins vs. The Bloodline (Roman Reigns & The Rock)
- 5.61 (655 votes) – Dominik Mysterio & Santos Escobar vs. Andrade & Rey Mysterio
- 5.39 (631 votes) – Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill & Naomi vs. Damage CTRL (Asuka, Dakota Kai & Kairi Sane)
- 2.89 (710 votes) – Jey Uso vs. Jimmy Uso
WrestleMania Sunday – Event rating:
- Cagematch.net voter rating: 9.03 (575 votes)
WrestleMania Sunday – Match ratings:
- 9.19 (902 votes) – Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns (c)
- 8.48 (710 votes) – Bayley vs. IYO SKY (c)
- 7.83 (668 votes) – Kevin Owens and Randy Orton vs. Logan Paul (c)
- 7.52 (699 votes) – Drew McIntyre vs. Seth Rollins (c)
- 6.81 (626 votes) – AJ Styles vs. LA Knight
- 5.46 (586 votes) – The Final Testament (Akam, Karrion Kross & Rezar) vs. The Pride (Angelo Dawkins, Bobby Lashley & Montez Ford)
- Ineligible (<5 mins) – Damian Priest vs. Drew McIntyre (c)
Brandon Thurston has written about wrestling business since 2015. He operates and owns Wrestlenomics.