Netflix’s tag team with WWE has been a victory for both sides, so far this year. According to Ampere Analysis, WWE content streamed for more than 300 million viewing hours in H1 2025, with weekly WWE Raw averaging about 6.5 million viewing hours per broadcast and WrestleMania delivering a massive 19.8 million viewing hours across its spring double bill.
That kind of sustained live and near-live consumption is exactly the sort of audience Netflix hoped to attract when it became the domestic home of WWE Raw and the international home of all WWE content earlier this year. Plus, Ampere’s research found that SmackDown and NXT add another 2.2 million viewing hours per week.
As the digital shift continues in the world of sports, Ampere’s numbers prove that viewers treat big streaming events on the platform more like appointment TV. The research shows the WWE partnership is delivering repeat, habitual viewing with weekly tune-ins rather than one-off spikes for Netflix. This type of viewing reduces churn, which is what advertisers and subscription platforms covet.
Compared to one-off events, Ampere found that of the US users who signed up for the Raw premiere, only 18.2% churned after 60 days, which was far fewer than the 25.6% for Paul vs. Tyson and the 27.2% for NFL Christmas Day. And the wrestling promotion is driving subscriber growth, with the survey finding that US WWE viewers with a Netflix subscription rose from 62% in Q3 2024 to 76% in Q1 2025 (vs. 59% and 61% across all respondents).
“WWE Raw’s weekly broadcast is building a loyal, regular viewership – perfect for helping Netflix reduce churn versus one-off major events. The US experience with WWE underscores why the streaming platforms are investing in premium, recurring live sports rights,” says Joshua Rustage, Senior Analyst at Ampere Analysis.
Ampere cites that the annual value of sports rights held by subscription OTT services has risen from $3.2 billion in 2020 to well over $12 billion in 2025. More leagues are embracing the digital front, even as there is growing concern among fans over rising streaming costs.
In the near future, Netflix could strengthen the partnership by acquiring deeper access to WWE’s library and NXT PLEs once the current Peacock windows expire. Adding the domestic rights to the archive and NXT live events would turn Netflix into a more complete destination for wrestling fans in the United States. Logically, Netflix could grow its wrestling audience, lengthen sessions, and deepen fandom even further since it already pulls massive viewing hours from WWE programming, per Ampere’s metrics.
The research comes from Ampere’s twice-yearly Media Consumer survey of 56,000 internet users aged 18-64 across 30 global markets. The insight from the survey sheds some light on how WWE shows, live sports, and sports-adjacent programming can convert casual streamers into habitual viewers.
Credit: Ampere Analysis