Dave Meltzer Calls Out Netflix For Manipulating WWE Raw Ratings Following Royal Rumble

One of the most significant changes in professional wrestling that 2025 has brought is the shift in TV ratings discussion. "WWE Raw" officially began streaming live on Netflix at the beginning of the year, and though viewership numbers are still available, things aren't as clear cut as they used to be. Speaking on "Wrestling Observer Radio," Dave Meltzer shared his frustration regarding Netflix's reporting of viewership for the February 3 edition of "Raw."

Meltzer referred to the platform's officially released numbers for the episode as "sleight of hand." Though the numbers from Netflix claim 3.1 million people around the world watched the episode, the podcast host stated that the company uses an unusual method of counting.

Rather than tracking individual views, Netflix takes the total amount of hours the content is viewed in a week and divides it by the hour-length of that content. However, for "Raw," the company uses the shorter replay runtime rather than the live broadcast, resulting in an artificially inflated number.

"They're at about 1.2 million viewers in the United States for the show after the Royal Rumble. Last year, they were at 1.9 million," Meltzer continued. "That's a big drop."

Along with that, the show has experienced a 58.6% drop in viewership since the first episode of "Raw" to stream live on Netflix. Meltzer noted that the episode of "Raw" immediately following the WWE Royal Rumble is typically one of the promotion's biggest of the year, but it brought in even fewer viewers than last week's show.

"I expected them to be way up, you know? Day after the Rumble," Meltzer continued. "Woke up, saw the number, and it's like, 'Okay, they're up.' And like two seconds later, I'm looking at this going like, 'Oh, my God. They are manipulating the numbers.'"

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.