Dave Meltzer Discusses Recent AEW Television Numbers

Since both WWE and AEW have started to simulcast some of their weekly television programs on streaming services, calculating total viewership numbers has been more difficult than usual, with numbers not as accessible to the public as they are on cable. This past January, "AEW Dynamite" began streaming on MAX, and with cable numbers steadily hovering around the 600,000 viewer mark throughout 2025, Dave Meltzer provided an update on how the show is performing on streaming thus far.

"'Dynamite' has been doing about a half a million viewers on MAX on average every week ... viewers on a streaming service and Neilson numbers are completely different." Meltzer said. "An average episode of 'Dynamite' does legitimately, by the third day, just on television with no streaming, does about 1.5 million viewers, but the Neilson number would be 600 live, 650 live, probably 800 with DVR numbers." Meltzer said on "Wrestling Observer Radio."

Meltzer also said that viewership numbers that are released to the public is the average viewership of the 125 minutes of the show, but not the number of people who actually tune-in, explaining that most people don't watch the entire show. Although he's been impressed with "Dynamite's" ratings on MAX, Meltzer did admit that streaming numbers are more difficult to examine, and that nobody truly has access to the accurate results.

"The problem with the streaming number here is that, first, nobody knows. It's like these numbers are under a lock and key. I've seen people go like, 'well if the numbers were bad ... Nick Khan would get the news out,' it's like, well that's true, except he wouldn't know them. Believe me, no one knows them. AEW doesn't know them, they have an idea, but they don't know them."

Meltzer then touched on the current landscape of "AEW Collision's" ratings on MAX, explaining that the program is doing better than most people think. Due to the program airing on Saturday nights, Meltzer shared that many viewers often don't tune-in live and will choose to watch the show the next day. He also noted that the 18-49 demographic is improving for "Collision," especially on MAX as the platform hosts younger viewers, and that its success can be compared to WWE Saturday Night's Main Event on streaming.

"It's probably similar to, maybe a little higher than what Saturday Night's Main Event would do, if you add in the Peacock numbers. Because they [AEW] push MAX far harder than WWE pushes Peacock for Saturday Night's Main Event, so it's a similar thing to that."

Throughout March, "Dynamite" has maintained steady numbers on cable, and has managed to average numbers well above the 600,000 viewer mark for several weeks. As for "Collision," outside of their back-to-back shows that aired following March Madness games, ratings haven't been promising on cable, but the their numbers on MAX have seemingly made up for it.

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.