All-Elite Wrestling is averaging around 500,000 viewers for its Wednesday Dynamite show on the MAX streaming platform since the show debuted on the app this year, according to sources.
Combined with live cable numbers, this would give Dynamite an average of around 1-to-1.2 million viewers per episode since it was added to the streaming service.
UPDATE: As noted in the original story, there's large deviations week to week which affect total streaming minutes.
UPDATE 2: AEW President Tony Khan corroborated this report during the AEW Dynasty 2025 media call.
According to sources, the show is averaging around 60 million minutes watched per show with a deviation of plus/minus 10 to 20 percent depending on the episode and competition. Nielsen style viewership numbers aren't necessarily important to streamers, the minutes watched averages to 500,000 viewers per episode Live-Plus-1. Meaning it takes into account viewers who watched live on the app and for 24 hours afterward.
In a February report, CNBC said MAX expects to reach 150 million global subscribers by the end of 2026. Estimates from several companies believed MAX had around 60 million subscribers in the US this year. Andrew Bucholtz of Awful Announcing reported TBS had around 72 million homes in 2023. The number is expected to be lower in 2025 due to downward trends.
Late last year, sources with WBD said the company was impressed with AEW's performance on TBS and TNT. The result was a three-year deal for around $175-to-$185 million per.
AEW PPV is expected to move to MAX once the app has the capability to run PPV shows.
Sources said AEW has regularly out-performed some major hockey games on the app. NBA games on MAX average around 1.7 to 2 million viewers depending on matchups and competition.
While AEW's success on streaming has been noted by the WBD, the numbers are far from top streaming programs like Daredevil: Born Again and Agatha All Along, which bribed in numbers from 7 to 10 million per episode.
A source, who corroborated the numbers, said he expected AEW to face stronger competition through the spring. The Andor Star Wars series resumes in April. WWE is entering Wrestlemania season.
"Many of the top execs don't know the overall numbers," the source said. "Whether its total minutes watched. Viewers who have watched the total show. (They) can make correlations but what streamers look for is quite different from cable or OTA where numbers are there to satisfy advertisers."
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