WWE have announced that this years SummerSlam, which took place from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas this past Saturday, was the most viewed and highest grossing SummerSlam of all time.
The event notably took place on a Saturday, which broke the usual long standing pattern of WWE Pay-Per-Views taking place on Sunday Nights. This was undoubtedly a risk from the promotion, however the company made the decision after considering the fact that a lot more people would likely travel to Las Vegas on a Saturday, compared to a Sunday night.
For the vast majority of WWE Pay-Per-Views, WWE targets the local market, however due to the fact that they decided to host the event in a stadium instead of arena this year, they knew they’d need fans to travel in from across the country, meaning they would need to appeal to more than just the local market.
WWE have sent Wrestling Republic the following statement:
08/24/2021
Annual Event Sets Records for Live Global Viewership, Gate Receipts, Indoor Attendance, Merchandise Sales, Sponsorships & Social Engagement
STAMFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Following a weekend of record-setting metrics, WWE (NYSE: WWE) delivered the most-viewed and highest-grossing SummerSlam in the company’s history.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210824005507/en
Highlights include:
- More people watched Saturday’s event live across Peacock and WWE Network than any other SummerSlamin the company’s history. The seven-figure global audience marked a 55% increase over 2020 and a 29% increase over 2019;
- The sell-out crowd of 51,326 broke SummerSlam records for indoor attendance and gate receipts. With tickets purchased by fans from all 50 U.S. states, Saturday’s live gate was more than four times greater than the lastSummerSlam held with fans in attendance in 2019;
- Merchandise sales posted an increase of 155% over 2019;
- SummerSlam set a new sponsorship record, growing by 25% vs. 2019 and 18% vs. 2020;
- With more than four million views, Brock Lesnar’s return became WWE’s most-watched Instagram video of all-time – surpassing the video of John Cena’s return at Money In The Bank. In total, SummerSlam videos generated more than one billion views across all WWE social platforms during the week.
