WWE’s recent WrestleMania XL two-day event has been hailed as the biggest in the company’s history, breaking records in several categories.
WrestleMania XL saw the return of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in his first match in WWE since 2013 on night one, whilst fans flocked to NBC’s Peacock to watch Cody Rhodes beat WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns to end his historic 1,316 day reign on night two.
The weekend event proved to be a major success for Peacock, with viewership up by 41% from WrestleMania 39. NBCUniversal confirmed that WrestleMania XL was viewed 1.3 billion minutes across night one and two, with night one viewership up 26% from last year, whilst night two’s viewership increased 30%.
WrestleMania XL also became the second biggest usage that Peacock had experienced on its streaming platform in its history, behind the NFL AFC Wild Card game between the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins, which became the most-streamed event in US history.
For those in attendance at Lincoln Financial Field, WrestleMania XL broke last year’s gate record by 78%, making it the highest-grossing WWE event of all time.
The combined attendance for both nights at last weekend’s event was 145,298, with WWE stating it brought fans in from 50 different states and 64 countries worldwide.
Elsewhere, WWE brought in major sponsors to the weekend events. PRIME Hydration became the first official in-ring sponsor of WWE several months prior and was on display on both nights, with Snickers, Slim Jim, C4 Energy and more gaining brand exposure across WrestleMania XL.
WWE broke its own record again from WrestleMania 39 last year when it came to merchandise due to its partnership with Fanatics, breaking the record by 20%.
The partnership with Fanatics also brought the weekend event titled ‘WWE World at WrestleMania’, where fans were able to buy exclusive merchandise, watch live interviews from WWE talent and more.
Furthermore, WrestleMania XL became the most socially-viewed WrestleMania event of all time, with over 660 million views accrued over the two nights. WWE’s YouTube channel had its most-viewed day in its history on night two, with more than 67 million views across the channel in 24 hours.
With WrestleMania XL becoming a resounding success, this will no doubt prove to be fruitful for its parent company TKO Group.
TKO Group’s share price increased by 13% from 86.18 one week prior to WrestleMania XL, to 97.50 as of the time of writing.
The UFC, which merged with the WWE last September to form TKO Group, will also be hosting a highly-anticipated event in UFC 300 this Saturday, which may also prove to be a significantly important weekend for TKO Group’s growth.
