AEW Dynamite Ratings Hit Four-Year Low

The television ratings for AEW Dynamite had a significant drop on a show featuring The Young Bucks in tag team action.

On the May 15th edition of AEW Dynamite in Everett, Washington, All Elite Wrestling continued to push stories leading into the May 26th Double or Nothing PPV. The show featured victories for big names like World Champion Swerve Strickland, Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada, and Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks – Matthew & Nicholas Jackson.

In terms of television ratings, it was a down week for Dynamite, according to Wrestlenomics. Dynamite drew an average audience of 672,000 viewers and had an 18-49 rating of 0.23. Compared to a week earlier, the overall viewership was down 5.5% and down 4.2% in the key demographic.

The most alarming news is those numbers were the lowest audience total for a Wednesday airing of the show since June 24, 2020, which means nearly four years. That was also when the COVID-19 pandemic prevented fans from attending shows.

Another statistic that isn’t a good sign is that Dynamite’s overall viewership was down 17.4% while its 18-49 rating was down 17.9%. That also means it is the 26th straight week that Dynamite’s overall viewership numbers have been down year-over-year.

Dave Meltzer Addresses AEW Dynamite’s Audience Decline

As AEW’s television audience continues to drop, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has noted that it was expected somewhat since the attendance at AEW shows has also been going down throughout this year.

“The continued erosion of the 18-34 audience which has been the key in AEW Dynamite’s lower ratings, led to the 5/15 show doing the lowest audience for the show in its regular time slot since January 6, 2021, and he lowest in 18-49 since June 24, 2020.”

“The AEW audience was down to 82,000 viewers in that demo, whereas months ago they were routinely at 150,000. There is a legit reason for some of this with the sports playoffs, but it’s clear that the direction they are going in isn’t working with that audience. Over 35 is still at somewhat normal levels, or at least levels that should be expected given the competition.

“It still beat everything but the playoffs on television, and beat it by a wide margin, so you can interpret it positively given the chart, but there is a real issue with the audience the company was strongest with. And it’s not like the key thing they had at the start, the great matches every week, isn’t still the case as they had three killer matches and other good matches involving their champions and top stars.”

“Essentially what has happened is what we predicted months ago, as the house show decline precedes the television ratings decline. The decline is mainly in the age group that would be most likely to attend house shows.”

There is also tougher competition this time of year thanks to the NBA and NHL playoffs taking place. However, that competition was there last year too, which is why the year-to-year drop is significant for All Elite Wrestling.