News On How The WWE Network Move To Peacock Has Affected Viewership

Viewership for WWE pay-per-view events has increased due to the partnership with Peacock, which is the exclusive home of the WWE Network in the United States.

WWE President & Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan noted during Thursday's Q2 2021 earnings call with investors that viewership for the WrestleMania Backlash pay-per-view was up 26% from last year, while Hell In a Cell viewership was up 25%, Money In the Bank viewership was up 46%, all from the year before on the stand-alone WWE Network platform.

Khan also revealed that WWE viewership numbers have increased considerably from what the shows were doing before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. WWE expects those numbers to continue to climb as Peacock grows their subscriber base.

"Four months into the Peacock partnership, we're seeing the benefits of a streaming partnership with a platform that has broad distribution and continues to grow," Khan told investors. "Since moving to Peacock, viewership of our pay-per-view events have increased with Backlash up 26%, Hell In a Cell up 25%, and Money In the Bank up 46% from their prior year performance, on what was the stand-alone WWE Network.

"These viewership numbers are also up considerably from our pre-pandemic WWE Network numbers. As you recall, when we announced the Peacock deal we said one of the key reasons for the partnership was to bring the WWE product to a wider audience than those subscribed to WWE Network. We expect viewership of WWE to increase, particularly as Peacock grows its base of users."

As noted before, it was revealed in Comcast's Q2 2021 financial results on Thursday that Peacock has now reached 54 million subscribers since its debut in April 2020. It had 42 million sign-ups as of the end of the first quarter of this year. The platform generated more than 20 million monthly active users for the second quarter of this year.

Peacock should also boost WWE international viewership as the platform will begin its international rollout this year as a free addition on Sky TV's satellite platform in Europe, which will give it a base of 20 million households.

For those who missed it earlier, you can click here for our report on interesting comments on AEW from Khan and WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon. You can click here for the earnings release from today, with comments from Vince and all the numbers. Our live call recap can be found here.

Stay tuned for more.