WWE has been riding a wave of success over the past year, with 2023 being highly profitable and echoing the success of the highly lauded Attitude Era. Under the still-fledgling creative lead of Paul "Triple H" Levesque, the pro wrestling juggernaut has been able to notch record financial and viewership figures, leading to high expectations ahead of its biggest annual spectacle — Wrestlemania XL.
That momentum continued during its kickoff press conference for the 'Show of Shows' in Las Vegas on February 9. With a hotly-anticipated angle involving Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, and the recently returned Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, this livestream ended up becoming the organization's most popular one on YouTube.
This one-hour show hit 305.7K Peak Viewers and 222.4K Average Viewers, both record numbers for the channel. These were increases of 177.8% and 127.2% on the previous number one video, which came during the Survivor Series: WarGames post-show press conference on November 26, 2023, where CM Punk made his earth-shattering return after almost a decade away from WWE.
The live broadcast peaked towards the end, when Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes finally chose to face Roman Reigns in the Main Event of WrestleMania XL, something fans had been clamoring for over the past few weeks. It then saw these pro wrestling personalities wage a ward of words before The Rock slapped the youngest member of the legendary Rhodes family, leading to a pullapart that needed security involvement. It also became the channel's fifth-most-watched video ever, showing just how much hype there is among fans and pundits for Wrestlemania XL.
The road to the 'Showcase of the Immortals' usually begins at the Royal Rumble in January, with the build-up lasting around two months. This time around, thanks to the merger of UFC and WWE under one parent body — Endeavor — this period has been a little different, a little electrifying, if we may.
The American holding company for talent and media agencies has made it its prerogative to present more reality-based content from WWE. That is where the kickoff press conference struck gold, as The Rock "turned heel" (basically becoming a villain) by mirroring his real-life appointment to the board of directors at TKO Holdings, Inc., the company formed by Endeavor to bring WWE and UFC under one banner.
When looking at the most popular YouTube Non-gaming organization channels over the past week, WWE comes in the seventh spot on a table dominated by the Sports genre. It also has to be noted that, per a post on X by WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H, this kickoff PC ended with a WWE record of 100M social views in the first 12 hours and over 4.7M live viewers across all social platforms. It also became the most-viewed non-in-ring event live stream of all time.
For those unaware, WrestleMania XL is scheduled to emanate from the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania over two nights, i.e., April 6 and 7. Tickets are available here for those who wish to attend the company's biggest annual Premium Live Event in person. Meanwhile, the live stream is available on Peacock in the United States and the WWE Network (premium subscription) in other parts of the world.
