The third iteration of XFL has commenced with a significantly slower start than its predecessors.
The third iteration of the XFL has begun with a considerably slower start than its predecessors, such as the USFL and Alliance of American Football.
During the opening weekend, the first four XFL telecasts experienced at least a 50% decline in viewership compared to the equivalent windows of the previous XFL three years ago. For instance, the inaugural game between Vegas and Arlington on ABC Saturday afternoon garnered an average of 1.54 million viewers, which represents a 54% drop from the inaugural game on the same network three years ago (3.30M). It's worth noting that the viewership three years ago didn't include out-of-home viewing.
Additionally, viewership was lower than the inaugural games of last year's USFL (3.07M) and the 2019 Alliance of American Football (3.25M), albeit these games aired in primetime and, in the case of the USFL, on two broadcast networks.
Among the opening weekend games, the most-watched was St. Louis-San Antonio on Sunday, which attracted 1.57 million viewers, a 54% decrease from the equivalent FOX window three years ago (3.39M). Also, viewership declined 27% from last year's first Sunday afternoon USFL game on NBC (2.15M).
In terms of cable, the combined average viewership for Orlando-Houston on Saturday night on ESPN and FX was 1.14 million, a 65% decrease from a primetime window on FOX three years ago (3.29M). Meanwhile, Seattle-DC had the lowest viewership of the weekend, with an average of 918,000 viewers on ESPN alone on Sunday night, representing a 63% decrease from the same ESPN window in 2020 (2.50M). It's worth noting that it took the prior XFL five weeks before it dipped below the million viewer mark for the first time.
Only two of the 20 games in the prior XFL drew a smaller audience than Seattle-D.C., which were the last two games ever played on what turned out to be the final Sunday of play (767K on FS1, 833K on ESPN).
| POLL | ||
24 FEVRIER | 106 ANSWERS The third iteration of XFL has commenced with a significantly slower start than its predecessors. Do you believe in the XFL's profitability moving forward? | ||
| Yes | 37 | 34.9 % |
| No | 69 | 65.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
