How WWE performed on Netflix in 2025: Raw, PLEs, SmackDown & Unreal

In case you missed it, Netflix released viewing data for the second half of 2025 earlier this week, revealing how WWE performed among its fellow content peers.

The following highlights and notes come from their biannual “What We Watched” report which was released in concert with their fourth quarter earning report.

Unreal

In the second half of the year, the highest ranking show overall for WWE was the first season of Unreal which brought in 4.9 million global views and 22.8 million total global hours viewed, putting it at 407th overall. The show was available worldwide.

PLEs

September’s first-ever WWE Wrestlepalooza brought in 1.9 million total global views and 5.7 total million global hours viewed to lead the pack for the second half.

November’s Survivor Series WarGames was right behind it with a reported 1.8 million global views and 5.3 total million global hours viewed.

Evolution was the worst performing at just 900,000.

ShowTotal Global Views
Wrestlepalooza1,900,000
Survivor Series: WarGames1,800,000
SummerSlam night 21,700,000
SummerSlam night 11,500,000
Crown Jewel: Perth1,400,000
Clash in Paris1,300,000
Evolution900,000

For the year, last January’s Royal Rumble finished the year in the top spot at 3.2 million global views, beating out night two of WrestleMania (2.9 million), WrestleMania night one (2.5 million), and March’s Elimination Chamber (2 million) with Wrestlepalooza finishing fifth overall.

The worst performing was July’s Evolution followed by Clash in Paris (1.3 million) and Night of Champions (1.3 million).

Of note, these numbers are worldwide minus the U.S. where PLEs were either on the Peacock or ESPN streaming service.

Raw and SmackDown

The best performing edition of WWE Raw in the second half was on November 17 with 3.5 million total global views, edging out the August 4 episode that did 3.4 million. 13 episodes were above three million overall with the lowest bringing in 2.2 million for the December 29 episode. However, since the numbers are as of December 31, that was only based on three days.

The highest ranking episode of the year by far was the Netflix debut on January 6 with 7.1 million total global views.

SmackDown, available worldwide but not in the U.S. on Netflix, saw the majority of its second half episodes finish in the 700,000 to 1.3 million range. The highest was the September 5 edition (1.3 million total global views) which also was the best performing for the year, beating out several 1.1 million episodes.

NXT

Available worldwide but not in the U.S. on Netflix, nearly every PLE had 200,000 global views with their weekly TV in the 100,000-200,000 range. The best performing was the September 16 Homecoming episode at 300,000.

Here’s the analysis for the first half of the year.

Netflix announces WWE PLE library deal

Netflix and WWE are officially expanding their partnership with Netflix now hosting the WWE PLE library.

After the expiration of WWE’s deal with Peacock, the company’s PLE archive was added to Netflix on January 1. An official announcement has now been made, with The Hollywood Reporter reporting that it is a multi-year agreement. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

“Beginning immediately, Netflix is the new U.S. home for WWE’s library of Premium Live Events (prior to September 2025) including WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Royal Rumble, as well as award-winning documentaries and original programming,” Netflix’s announcement said.

September 2025 is when WWE’s new PLE deal with ESPN went into effect. Wrestlepalooza, Crown Jewel: Perth, and Survivor Series 2025 aired on ESPN, so ESPN has the rights to those events (and future PLEs) in the United States instead of Netflix.

The WWE-Netflix partnership began in 2025 with WWE Raw moving to the streaming platform. They celebrated the one-year anniversary last night with Netflix airing an episode of Raw branded as “Stranger Things Night.”

Netflix broadcasts a wider variety of WWE programming internationally, including airing PLEs outside of the U.S.

Peacock and WWE still have a relationship that includes Peacock airing Saturday Night’s Main Event and NXT PLEs. Peacock also carries the SmackDown library, while Netflix has the rights to the Raw library. It remains to be seen where other classic content like WCW and ECW events will end up.

Nick Khan clarifies how many yearly WWE PLEs are in ESPN deal

In the wake of Wednesday’s announcement that ESPN will be the future home of WWE premium live events, WWE president Nick Khan clarified exactly how many shows that will entail.

Khan spoke with Puck’s John Ourand about the deal and said that while the amount of shows always could grow, the current deal is for ten annual PLEs held over 12 nights as WrestleMania and SummerSlam will remain at two nights each.

When asked about whether unique shows like Evolution will be part of that, Khan said to assume that WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, Money in the Bank, and Survivor Series are set and that they will continue to look at other shows, citing this month’s Clash in Paris as an example.

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Beginning in April 2026, the new deal is reportedly for five years and $1.6 billion, an increase from what WWE was getting from Peacock annually.

Khan talked about the ESPN deal in aggregate, noting that “The marketplace dictates the price on all things in my opinion. The media rights marketplace to any reasonable person looking at it, has become reflective, relatively speaking, of the U.S. economy where the upper tier products continue to go up and the premium content gets premium pricing.”

As he has done in the past, Khan said that “the middle” when it comes to TV rights are getting “squeezed a bit” and that fortunately for WWE fans, they are not in the middle.

Without saying what other entities were interested, Khan said interest in the package “was real.” He said that “timing always matters on these things” and explained how the initial Peacock PLE deal was made during the height of the pre-vaccine COVID-19 era where NBCU needed content as the Olympics were postponed.

He did not say, nor was he asked, if Peacock made a final bid or if they were given the option to do so.

Khan said the ESPN deal didn’t take as long as the newly-announced NFL/ESPN deal did as, “It was sort of clear. Here’s this subscriber base, here’s how we think we can grow it together, and this is the perfect platform for us and our subscribers.”

Khan said he had dealt with ESPN/Disney extensively in the past on potential WWE deals but that it just didn’t work for timing reasons.

“This time, it worked.”

Nick Khan reveals France will host a WWE PLE in 2025

This story has been updated.

WWE will continue their international presence when it comes to premium live events in 2025 with the company’s leader providing the name of at least one country that will host one.

WWE president Nick Khan appeared at a Las Vegas tourism event Thursday and during a “fireside chat” he took part in, he referred to Paris, France, hosting a PLE that has yet to be announced.

Our report initially included Germany, but Khan was using that in reference to an event held there last year and not necessarily for this year.

Last December, TKO’s Mark Shapiro said to expect more international PLEs this year coming after a 2024 in which eight out of 12 were hosted outside of the United States (two each in Saudi Arabia and Canada and one each in Australia, France, Scotland and Germany).

To this point, WWE has announced four PLEs for this year with one thus far outside the United States: March’s Elimination Chamber in Canada.

Here are some additional notes from Khan’s talk:

  • The WWE World fan fest will be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center from April 17th-21st.
  • Both the pre-WrestleMania SmackDown on April 18th and the post-WrestleMania Raw will be held at the T-Mobile Arena.

Nick Khan gives update on WWE’s plans for international PLEs

While speaking at the World Congress of Sports convention on Wednesday, WWE President Nick Khan gave an update on the company’s plans for future premium live event locations.

Khan said WWE’s big five PLEs (WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and Money in the Bank) will be held in either the United States or Canada. The goal is for other PLEs to be held in international locations.

“We sat down together a few years ago and decided, so the big five premium live events … should be in the United States or Canada,” Khan said. “All of the other events, the goal is to have them from international locations.”

In the coming months, WWE has Backlash (May 4 in France), King & Queen of the Ring (May 25 in Saudi Arabia), Clash at the Castle (June 15 in Scotland), and Bash in Berlin (August 31 in Germany) being held overseas.

Toronto is hosting Money in the Bank on July 6. SummerSlam will take place from Cleveland on August 3.

Khan discussed the importance of the international PLEs: “There’s a halo effect on those big deals. Merchandise sales, relevancy goes up, and who knows — is the next Yao Ming of that country watching [WWE] and wanting to do it in 10 years.”

Also at the convention, Khan noted that WWE isn’t ready to announce the location for WrestleMania 41 yet.