Credit: Advanced Television
WWE’s debut on Netflix has quickly become one of the platform’s biggest sports success stories. According to data from Ampere Analysis, WWE content amassed over 300 million viewing hours in the first half of 2025, driven primarily by the success of its flagship weekly show, WWE Raw, and major live event WrestleMania 41.
Since its January 2025 launch, WWE Raw has consistently averaged 6.5 million viewing hours per broadcast, while WrestleMania 41 alone delivered 19.8 million viewing hours across its two-night April spectacle. Treating Raw as an episodic “season,” Ampere ranks it as the third most-watched TV season globally by total viewing hours, trailing only Adolescence and Squid Game — despite being available in just 12 markets covering roughly 52% of Netflix subscribers.
The report highlights that Netflix’s WWE strategy is paying off beyond viewership. Among U.S. users who subscribed for WWE Raw’s premiere, only 18.2% churned within 60 days, far outperforming other live Netflix events such as Jake Paul vs Tyson Fury (25.6%) and the NFL Christmas Day games (27.2%). Moreover, U.S. Netflix subscribers identifying as WWE fans jumped from 62% in Q3 2024 to 76% in Q1 2025, reflecting strong retention and fan conversion.
Ampere’s analysis also underlines the rapid growth of live sports investment by streamers, with the annual value of rights owned by OTT services climbing from US$3.2 billion in 2020 to US$12.3 billion in 2025.
Emerging markets like India (25.5%), the Philippines (22.6%), and South Africa (27.6%) are identified as prime opportunities for Netflix and WWE’s expansion, offering engagement levels similar to the U.S. despite the absence of current live content rights.
365247 Insight
WWE’s integration into Netflix represents a turning point for live sports streaming, proving that serialized sports content can drive both engagement and retention at scale. For Netflix, it validates a sports-as-entertainment strategy — treating weekly broadcasts like bingeable series — while for WWE, it positions the brand as a global IP powerhousecapable of competing with traditional scripted entertainment. The partnership exemplifies how the lines between live sport, storytelling, and subscriber strategy are increasingly converging in the streaming economy.
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