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Welcome to the English version of Solowrestling Read more
Welcome to the English version of Solowrestling Read more
One of the topics that generates the most interest among professional wrestling fans is related to the television show audience data. This data is provided by Nielsen (now known as Nielsen Holdings), whose measurement and analysis metrics are the current industry standard in the United States.
However, something has changed in recent weeks. Nielsen has decided to modify the way television audiences are measured. To achieve this, the "panel-only" methodology (based on a representative sample of measured households) will be eliminated in the fourth quarter of 2025, a change that has already been noticed (as can be seen in the latest audience data for NXT and AEW Dynamite).
Instead, a hybrid approach called "Big Data + Panel" will be adopted, which combines device-level data (such as set-top boxes or Smart TVs) along with traditional panel data to validate and calibrate measurements. This change was approved by the Media Rating Council, giving it legitimacy as a methodology for measuring audiences.
Taking all this into account, and considering the abnormal decline in the latest weekly shows of NXT and AEW Dynamite (which marked their lowest ratings of the year), fans are wondering if this change in methodology will significantly impact televised wrestling events from now on. This is a question that Brandon Thurston from Wrestlenomics tried to address in a recent article.
"This change in Nielsen's methodology almost certainly explains the discrepancies we saw last week in the television audience reports from Programming Insider (which seems to have started reporting data using the Big Data + Panel methodology last week) and other media outlets, including Wrestlenomics and PWTorch," Thurston wrote.
"Overall, under the Big Data + Panel methodology, I expected broadcasts to show higher audience measurements. But so far, in wrestling broadcasts for which I have measurements with both methodologies, the audience is mostly lower. However, other broadcasts do show higher figures. It seems that programs with a younger-skewing audience, in some cases, tend to show lower figures with Big Data + Panel, but it's not consistent."
Thurston uses the example of the data from NXT and AEW Dynamite from last week (September 23 and 24). NXT saw a 13% decrease in audience under the new "Big Data + Panel" measurement (and a 28% decrease in the P18-49 range). Dynamite also recorded a 13% drop in overall audience (and a 20% decrease in the P18-49 range).
It is clear that the new measurements could generate confusion, discrepancies, or biased interpretations of audience data in the world of wrestling, as Thurston himself suggests. Nevertheless, audiences remain a key factor for the business, as the total number of viewers will continue to be essential to justify investments from television networks, not only for WWE and AEW, but for any other wrestling company looking to bring their product to television.
At Solowrestling, we will continue to publish the weekly audience data for WWE and All Elite Wrestling based on information provided by reliable sources such as Programming Insider and Wrestlenomics, previously gathered from reports published by Nielsen.
