New data confirms WWE ticket prices have nearly doubled since TKO merger

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Average domestic ticket prices for WWE’s weekly main roster television events have roughly doubled since the TKO merger that combined WWE and UFC closed in September 2023, in real 2025 dollars.

Data obtained from Pollstar and analyzed by Wrestlenomics shows the line breaks sharply upward beginning in 2024 and continuing in 2025, after more gradual increases throughout the 2010s and 2020s. Pollstar doesn’t capture every Raw and Smackdown — there are more than 100 per year — but the sample is substantial: 27 domestic events so far in 2025 and around 50 in recent pre-pandemic years.

The natural question is whether this dramatic rise in prices is all that different from the wider live event business. The short answer is: yes, by scale. Pollstar posted an article at the end of 2024, indicating that, for touring acts in North America, average ticket prices were essentially flat from 2023 to 2024. Our analysis of Live Nation’s investor disclosures supports a similar conclusion, with prices largely stable when adjusted for inflation.

But what about sports? NFL ticket prices slightly declined this season from last year, according to The Athletic. The increase in NBA prices has been significant. In the 2023-2024 season, the average price was $118 before increasing 21% to $144 in the 2024-2025 season. That’s moderate compared to the 60% increase for WWE from 2024 to so far in 2025.

It’s a different question, though, to ask whether WWE tickets were previously underpriced. And it’s possible they were.

Some might assume the increase reflects more international televised events skewing the sample, but that’s not the case here. This analysis excluded all international events and focused just on events in WWE’s domestic market in the U.S. and Canada. Still, the growing number of international tapings and the steep decline in non-televised house shows mean fewer domestic events than ever, which might push domestic prices higher by creating scarcity.

TKO President and COO Mark Shapiro — who began overseeing WWE when the merger finalized — has been clear that raising ticket prices isn’t an accident, it’s a mission. At a Goldman Sachs conference in September, he said WWE “is not where UFC is yet on ticket yield” and that there’s “work to do.” He added that Vince McMahon “was primarily pricing tickets for families and wasn’t totally focused on maxing the opportunity.” Shapiro has made clear he sees higher ticket prices as part of a broader effort to expand WWE’s profitability. He connected the company’s latest increase in profits — “margin expansion” — to “higher ticket yield and site fees” and said there’s still “more room to go.”

Television viewership data from 2023 affirmed the conventional belief that household income for the average wrestling fan is well below the median in the U.S. But somehow demand — so far — is unfazed.

For those suggesting that WWE’s surge in consumer business — visible at least since McMahon backed off from creative control in 2022 — has cooled this year, the numbers in live events don’t support that. Despite record-high prices, more people are attending Raw and Smackdown events, not fewer.

WrestleTix estimates show tickets distributed for these events are having their third consecutive year of growth, averaging about 11,500 per show so far in 2025, up from about 11,000 even in 2024. Pollstar’s less complete data on actual sales aligns closely with that. The 27 domestic events sampled this year averaged just over 12,200 tickets sold, up from 11,400 in 2024; 9,800 in 2023; and 7,800 in both 2022 and 2021.

Even narrowing to the most recent quarter, from June to September, the pattern holds steady. Raw and Smackdown events averaged 10,847 tickets distributed, according to WrestleTix, almost identical to the same quarter last year at 10,849. All this while the average ticket price climbed from around $75 to $118.

AEW’s domestic ticket prices have gone in the opposite direction, adjusting for inflation. In 2025 dollars, the average AEW TV event went from $58 in 2022 to $49 in 2025. Attendance has also declined over the same time period, based on WrestleTix data. It’s worth noting that the 2025 figure is based on only six samples, far fewer than in previous years. And given evidence that AEW recently sought to include a confidentiality clause in a venue contract, it’s reasonable to question whether similar restrictions are more common across the company’s deals — potentially limiting Pollstar’s access to data from AEW events at a time when attendance for Tony Khan’s promotion has been trending downward.

Meanwhile, Live Nation’s calculated average ticketing fee — derived from dividing ticketing revenue by the number of fee-bearing tickets sold — has hovered around $9, inflation-adjusted, since 2022. The stability suggests price stability across events that cooperate with the Ticketmaster parent, assuming changes in fees would be proportionate to the underlying ticket price. Live Nation’s own concert ticket prices, adjusted for inflation, have also been flat, bouncing between $122 and $136 in 2025 dollars.