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Multiple people from AEW recently showed me data to dispute a report last week from PWTorch that looked at coverage ratings for Dynamite’s P18-49 viewership.

Coverage ratings are insightful because unlike the typical ratings data usually available to us, coverage ratings adjust for network availability, i.e., “cord-cutting”.

The report from the Torch used two data points each from 2023 and 2024, and seemed to show that Dynamite P18-49 viewership was down, even when adjusting for the availability of TBS.

To try to settle this, I got Nielsen data from a source who isn’t affiliated with AEW, to look into this further.

Based on that data, Dynamite’s average P18-49 coverage rating from January to June 2023 was 0.64. The same months of 2024 averaged 0.62, slightly lower than last year. That’s a difference of -3%. Still down, but it’s a milder decline than the -12% when it comes to the actual average number of viewers in the 18 to 49 age group. And -3% isn’t the steep decline in coverage rating that the Torch report indicated with a more limited set of data.

In terms of viewers overall, Dynamite’s P2+ coverage rating in the first six months of 2024 is 0.47, down 7% from 0.51 in 2023. Again, still down, but milder than the 14% decrease in terms of actual viewers.

Does this mean anything?

This might tell us a clearer story about AEW’s fan popularity. AEW may want to excuse ratings declines by pointing to cord-cutting, and Tony Khan frequently does. Nonetheless, even when adjusting for the diminishing availability of TNT and TBS, as cable subscribers fall, the viewership of AEW’s flagship program Dynamite has fallen, although the descent is expectedly less dramatic if you focus on coverage ratings.

Rampage looks better than Dynamite when focusing on coverage ratings. Rampage’s P18-49 coverage rating is up 6% this year versus last year. But its P2+ (total viewership) coverage rating is down 9%.

We only have two weeks in June last year to consider Collision, which includes the heavily hyped debut. So unsurprisingly those comparisons are broadly and deeply negative. It’s not a very insightful analysis, but Collision data is included below for completeness, transparency, posterity, etc.

People at AEW showed me a table that indicates people using TVs during Dynamite’s air time is down 10% year-over-year. Meanwhile, Dynamite viewership is down 15%. And people aged 18 to 49 using TVs during Dynamite is down 20%, which is more severe than Dynamite’s P18-49 viewership year-over-year difference of -13%.

For Rampage, the table from AEW shows people using TVs during Rampage is down 8% for P2+ (viewers age 2+) and down 16% for P18-49, while Rampage is down 19% and 10% in those two metrics.

TV data completely aside, WrestleTix data can give us an impression about AEW’s fan engagement. WrestleTix estimates tell us that AEW’s average attendance is down across event types. Dynamite is averaging an estimated 3,900 tickets distributed from January to June 2024, 28% lower than in 2023 when Dynamite averaged 5,400. Pay-per-view events are holding up better, down 5% on average versus last year: 10,500 this year, compared to 11,000 last year.

Some methodology notes:

We’re focusing on just January to June in this comparison to adjust for any seasonality that may (and probably does) affect ratings. Because they almost always have abnormal ratings, preempted episodes were excluded from the averages shown below. A preemption is defined as any episode that began airing outside of the program’s normal time slot or network.

All of this data represents live+same-day viewership, except for the median age “Live+3” metric which is labeled as such.

I’ve tried to translate the Nielsen viewership metrics (which have convoluted names) into plain English, so hopefully this is as clear as possible.

I’m aware we’re in a paranoid era when it comes to media trust, and that’s especially so when it comes to AEW, so for transparency, you can look through this data yourself, with all of these metrics and more in this Google Sheet here.

📊 View charts for all the data below on Patreon.

AEW DYNAMITE: January to June

AEW Dynamite – Persons 2+: national rating (% of people in TV homes)

• 2023: 0.28

• 2024: 0.24 (-15%)

AEW Dynamite – Persons 2+: viewers in thousands

• 2023: 881

• 2024: 761 (-14%)

AEW Dynamite – Persons 2+: coverage rating (% of network homes)

• 2023: 0.51

• 2024: 0.47 (-7%)

AEW Dynamite – Persons 18-49: national rating (% of people in TV homes)

• 2023: 0.30

• 2024: 0.26 (-13%)

AEW Dynamite – Persons 18-49: viewers in thousands

• 2023: 388

• 2024: 340 (-12%)

AEW Dynamite – Persons 18-49: coverage rating (% of network homes)

• 2023: 0.64

• 2024: 0.62 (-3%)

AEW Dynamite – Male persons 2+: national rating (% of people in TV homes)

• 2023: 0.40

• 2024: 0.34 (-16%)

AEW Dynamite – Male persons 2+: viewers in thousands

• 2023: 611

• 2024: 514 (-16%)

AEW Dynamite – Male persons 2+: coverage rating (% of network homes)

• 2023: 0.72

• 2024: 0.65 (-9%)

AEW Dynamite – Female persons 2+: national rating (% of people in TV homes)

• 2023: 0.17

• 2024: 0.15 (-9%)

AEW Dynamite – Female persons 2+: viewers in thousands

• 2023: 270

• 2024: 247 (-9%)

AEW Dynamite – Female persons 2+: coverage rating (% of network homes)

• 2023: 0.30

• 2024: 0.30 (-2%)

AEW Dynamite – Persons 18-34: national rating (% of people in TV homes)

• 2023: 0.22

• 2024: 0.18 (-20%)

AEW Dynamite – Persons 18-34: viewers in thousands

• 2023: 156

• 2024: 126 (-19%)

AEW Dynamite – Persons 18-34: coverage rating (% of network homes)

• 2023: 0.51

• 2024: 0.46 (-11%)

AEW Dynamite – Persons 2-17: national rating (% of people in TV homes)

• 2023: 0.06

• 2024: 0.05 (-12%)

AEW Dynamite – Persons 2-17: viewers in thousands

• 2023: 39.3

• 2024: 34.6 (-12%)

AEW Dynamite – Persons 2-17: coverage rating (% of network homes)

• 2023: 0.13

• 2024: 0.14 (+2%)

AEW Dynamite – Live+SD P2+ Est. Median Age

• 2023: 50.6

• 2024: 50.4 (-0%)

AEW Dynamite – Live+3 P2+ Est. Median Age

• 2023: 50.4

• 2024: 50.0 (-1%)

AEW RAMPAGE: January to June

AEW Rampage – Persons 2+: national rating (% of people in TV homes)

• 2023: 0.13

• 2024: 0.11 (-16%)

AEW Rampage – Persons 2+: viewers in thousands

• 2023: 412

• 2024: 351 (-15%)

AEW Rampage – Persons 2+: coverage rating (% of network homes)

• 2023: 0.24

• 2024: 0.22 (-9%)

AEW Rampage – Persons 18-49: national rating (% of people in TV homes)

• 2023: 0.12

• 2024: 0.11 (-6%)

AEW Rampage – Persons 18-49: viewers in thousands

• 2023: 155

• 2024: 148 (-4%)

AEW Rampage – Persons 18-49: coverage rating (% of network homes)

• 2023: 0.26

• 2024: 0.27 (+6%)

AEW Rampage – Male persons 2+: national rating (% of people in TV homes)

• 2023: 0.18

• 2024: 0.14 (-21%)

AEW Rampage – Male persons 2+: viewers in thousands

• 2023: 273

• 2024: 217 (-20%)

AEW Rampage – Male persons 2+: coverage rating (% of network homes)

• 2023: 0.32

• 2024: 0.27 (-15%)

AEW Rampage – Female persons 2+: national rating (% of people in TV homes)

• 2023: 0.09

• 2024: 0.08 (-4%)

AEW Rampage – Female persons 2+: viewers in thousands

• 2023: 139

• 2024: 134 (-4%)

AEW Rampage – Female persons 2+: coverage rating (% of network homes)

• 2023: 0.16

• 2024: 0.16 (+3%)

AEW Rampage – Persons 18-34: national rating (% of people in TV homes)

• 2023: 0.07

• 2024: 0.06 (-11%)

AEW Rampage – Persons 18-34: viewers in thousands

• 2023: 49.4

• 2024: 44.5 (-10%)

AEW Rampage – Persons 18-34: coverage rating (% of network homes)

• 2023: 0.16

• 2024: 0.16 (-1%)

AEW Rampage – Persons 2-17: national rating (% of people in TV homes)

• 2023: 0.03

• 2024: 0.02 (-34%)

AEW Rampage – Persons 2-17: viewers in thousands

• 2023: 18.1

• 2024: 11.7 (-35%)

AEW Rampage – Persons 2-17: coverage rating (% of network homes)

• 2023: 0.06

• 2024: 0.05 (-24%)

AEW Rampage – Live+SD P2+ Est. Median Age

• 2023: 53.0

• 2024: 51.8 (-2%)

AEW Rampage – Live+3 P2+ Est. Median Age

• 2023: 52.1

• 2024: 51.0 (-2%)

AEW COLLISION: January to June

Remember, the 2023 period here represents only 2 episodes, as the show debuted with its highest viewership ever on June 17, 2023.

AEW Collision – Persons 2+: national rating (% of people in TV homes)

• 2023: 0.23

• 2024: 0.13 (-40%)

AEW Collision – Persons 2+: viewers in thousands

• 2023: 706

• 2024: 421 (-40%)

AEW Collision – Persons 2+: coverage rating (% of network homes)

• 2023: 0.41

• 2024: 0.26 (-37%)

AEW Collision – Persons 18-49: national rating (% of people in TV homes)

• 2023: 0.27

• 2024: 0.12 (-54%)

AEW Collision – Persons 18-49: viewers in thousands

• 2023: 353

• 2024: 164 (-53%)

AEW Collision – Persons 18-49: coverage rating (% of network homes)

• 2023: 0.59

• 2024: 0.30 (-49%)

AEW Collision – Male persons 2+: national rating (% of people in TV homes)

• 2023: 0.32

• 2024: 0.18 (-44%)

AEW Collision – Male persons 2+: viewers in thousands

• 2023: 492

• 2024: 274 (-44%)

AEW Collision – Male persons 2+: coverage rating (% of network homes)

• 2023: 0.59

• 2024: 0.35 (-41%)

AEW Collision – Female persons 2+: national rating (% of people in TV homes)

• 2023: 0.14

• 2024: 0.09 (-33%)

AEW Collision – Female persons 2+: viewers in thousands

• 2023: 215

• 2024: 148 (-31%)

AEW Collision – Female persons 2+: coverage rating (% of network homes)

• 2023: 0.24

• 2024: 0.18 (-27%)

AEW Collision – Persons 18-34: national rating (% of people in TV homes)

• 2023: 0.19

• 2024: 0.07 (-62%)

AEW Collision – Persons 18-34: viewers in thousands

• 2023: 133

• 2024: 51.0 (-62%)

AEW Collision – Persons 18-34: coverage rating (% of network homes)

• 2023: 0.44

• 2024: 0.19 (-58%)

AEW Collision – Persons 2-17: national rating (% of people in TV homes)

• 2023: 0.08

• 2024: 0.03 (-61%)

AEW Collision – Persons 2-17: viewers in thousands

• 2023: 46.0

• 2024: 18.4 (-60%)

AEW Collision – Persons 2-17: coverage rating (% of network homes)

• 2023: 0.16

• 2024: 0.07 (-54%)

AEW Collision – Live+SD P2+ Est. Median Age

• 2023: 47.5

• 2024: 53.0 (+12%)

AEW Collision – Live+3 P2+ Est. Median Age

• 2023: 47.1

• 2024: 52.0 (+10%)

 

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