Raw averaged 2.6 million households in the US, a 116% increase from the 2024 US audience. (Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images)

The debut of WWE’s flagship ‘Monday Night Raw’ on Netflix attracted an audience of nearly 5 million as the streaming giant continues to make its mark in the live sports space.

The inaugural event on Netflix, which took place on Monday (January 6), drew 4.9 million views in multiple markets, including the US, Canada, UK, and Latin America.

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Netflix’s WWE coverage numbers do not include viewing figures in 92 countries/territories where the platform does not yet distribute WWE – such as France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea.

Raw averaged 2.6 million households in the US, a 116% increase from the program’s average 2024 US audience of 1.2 million households, and higher than any other Monday Night Raw broadcast in the past five years. The event also more than doubled its audience in the 18-49 demographic compared to last year.

The show, which took place at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, is also claimed to have set a company record as the highest-grossing WWE arena event of all time. Additionally, the event set a merchandise sales record, becoming the highest-grossing non-premium live event.

Additionally, WWE generated 223 million social views across platforms on the day of Raw’s Netflix premiere, more social views than any episode of 2024.

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Netflix secured global rights to the WWE program in January 2024 in a long-term deal.

The streaming heavyweight is reportedly paying around $5 billion for the rights to Raw, which at 31 years old is one of the longest running weekly episodic sports TV shows in the world.

Outside of the US, Netflix will also be the dedicated broadcaster of WWE’s Friday Night Smackdown and NXT weekly shows in the territories covered by the agreement, and will also broadcast WWE’s slate of premium live events, including the iconic WrestleMania annual event.

Netflix has made a strong entry into the live sports market and recently pulled in almost 65 million viewers worldwide for its coverage of two Christmas Day NFL games.

The platform’s recent coverage of the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson bout also drew over 60 million households of viewership.

In late December, Netflix bolstered its sports portfolio by securing the exclusive US rights to showcase the next two editions of soccer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.