SmackDown Lost 39% Of Its Viewers In January, AEW Dynamite Down 24% In 2025 (WWE News)
NXT was the only WWE or AEW show to post 2024 vs. 2025 viewership increases in January.

WWE SmackDown's total viewership declined 39% year over year in January 2025 following the show's move from FOX to USA Network.
SmackDown drew an average of 1.480 million P2+ viewers and an average P18-49 rating of 0.44 in January 2025, compared to 2.433 million and 0.67 in January 2024—declines of 39% and 34%, respectively. No other WWE or AEW brand declined so steeply in overall viewership during the same period.
AEW Dynamite dropped from 828,000 P2+ viewers in Jan 2024 to 627,4000 in Jan 2025, a 24% slip. More concerningly, Tony Khan's flagship show declined 39% in the key P18-49 demographic, going from an average rating of 0.28 to 0.17. AEW's other weekly, Collision, lost 17% of its P2+ viewership and 10% of P18-49 ratings.
WWE NXT was the only major wrestling show to demonstrate year-over-year growth in January, improving its total viewership by 22% and P18-49 ratings by 5%.

The above numbers refer to United States viewership only. WWE Raw cannot be included as a fair comparison following the show's move to Netflix, as United States viewership and demographic information is no longer available. Netflix's Tudum site provides global viewership data across a full week vs. Nielsen's live and same-day viewing figures only, so it is an apples-to-oranges comparison.
Why WWE SmackDown Has Lost 39% Of Viewers

SmackDown's move from FOX to USA Network is likely the key reason behind January's viewership decline. While FOX is a free over-the-air broadcast network, USA is a cable channel, which automatically limits the volume of potential viewers. FOX is available in more homes than USA Network, creating a natural decline.
It goes the other way, too. When SmackDown moved from USA to FOX in October 2019, viewership increased from a September average of 2.088 million to 2.898 million P2+ viewers in October.
Broadcasting changes may also have impacted AEW Dynamite and Collision's performance, though likely not to the same extent. Dynamite and Collision still air on TBS and TNT as they did in January 2024 but have been simulcasting on HBO Max since 1 January 2025. This could negatively impact television viewership as consumers opt to watch via streaming instead. However, it is impossible to accurately gauge the extent of this impact without Max viewership figures, which neither Warner Bros. Discovery nor AEW have disclosed in 2025.
NXT, the only show to grow year over year in January, moved from USA to The CW in October 2024. The CW is available in 100 million United States homes compared to USA's 85 million.