WrestleMania 42 viewership figures for first hour on ESPN & ESPN2

The ESPN viewership figures for nights one and two of WrestleMania 42 have been released.

The first WrestleMania under WWE’s new streaming rights deal with ESPN saw the first hour of each night’s event air on one of ESPN’s cable networks.

Saturday’s airing from 6-7 p.m. ET on ESPN2 averaged 1,616,000 viewers and 0.62 in the 18-49 demographic, with WWE boasting that it was the most-watched telecast of the year on ESPN2. The show featured LA Knight & The Usos defeating Logan Paul, Austin Theory, and iShowSpeed, and an Unsanctioned Match between Jacob Fatu and Drew McIntyre.

Sunday’s airing on ESPN during the same time averaged 1,822,000 viewers and 0.65 in the 18-49 demographic, featuring Brock Lesnar vs. Oba Femi and the six-man ladder match for the Intercontinental title. WWE stated it was the most-viewed telecast of the weekend on ESPN.

The numbers were reported by Front Office Sports, which has a content relationship with WWE.

WWE and ESPN have not disclosed any data related to the viewership on ESPN Unlimited, which streamed the entirety of both nights.

The natural comparison is the experiment by CBS to air a portion of the last two UFC premium live events. In March, the UFC 326 card featured a two-hour window on the network, averaging 2,474,000 viewers with the first hour of the main card averaging 2,810,000 and peaking at 3,210,000 viewers.

The UFC 327 earlier this month averaged 2,518,000 viewers and 0.60 in the 18-49 demographic in the first hour, and 2,766,000 viewers and 0.80 from 9:04 p.m. until 10:18 p.m. ET.

The UFC cards were streamed on Paramount+, which has a sizably larger subscriber base than ESPN Unlimited.

The post WrestleMania 42 viewership figures for first hour on ESPN & ESPN2 appeared first on POST Wrestling | Podcasts, News, Reviews | WWE AEW NXT NJPW.