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#5 The Television Ratings
WWE's biggest source of income remains to be the television deals for Raw, Smackdown and now NXT as well. Ironically enough, during the same period when its YouTube Channel boomed, its television ratings in the United States have plummeted. WWE Raw averaged 3.018 million viewers in 2017, 2.823 million viewers in 2018 and 2.418 million viewers in 2019. This year, it has averaged 2.321 million viewers so far despite being in the pre-WrestleMania season which is considered a good time for ratings. This represents a decline of 23% over this period.
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Smackdown has fared better and has averaged 2.546 million in 2017, 2.366 million in 2018 and 2.251 million in 2019 despite moving to a much bigger channel FOX in October. This year it has averaged 2.514 million viewers which is better from last year but still a 1.25% decline from 2017 despite FOX being in more homes than USA Network. Raw and Smackdown, however, still manage to be the highest-rated program in the coveted 18-49 year old demographic in most weeks.
NXT has been struggling against AEW Dynamite with its 10th straight loss this week averaging just 787,000 viewers since its inception aginst Dynamite's mighty 898,000 viewers.
