Not WrestleMania 41 - WWE's Most-watched Premium Live Event of 2025 So Far is The Royal Rumble!

For WWE fans, WrestleMania is the be all and end all - the show that bookends the ‘seasons’ in the calendar as everything builds towards the ‘Showcase of The Immortals’. That was the case with WWE WrestleMania 41 too, as the 2025 edition of the event saw a number of big moments, matches and results that had wrestling fans on tenterhooks. 

However, perhaps one big surprise is that WrestleMania 2025 is not the most-viewed Premium Live Event of the year - at least not according to data released by their global streaming partners Netflix. 

That honour goes to the Royal Rumble 2025, as it saw more international viewers than both nights of WrestleMania. 

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WM Outdone By Royal Rumble

According to Netflix's ‘What We Watched’ report, the Royal Rumble had a total global viewership of 3 million viewers, whereas Night 1 of WrestleMania had 2.4 million viewers and Night 2 had 2.8 million viewers. 

It also shows that outside of the bigger shows, the average viewership is around the million mark for most PLEs. 

This is evidenced by the numbers - Backlash had 1.5 million viewers, Elimination Chamber had 1.9 million viewers, Money in the Bank had 1.6 million viewers and Night of Champions had just 1 million viewers. 

However, any talk of the Royal Rumble being more popular than WrestleMania needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. 

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Not The Whole Picture

The streaming numbers do not tell the whole story as in the US, PLEs are not shown on Netlfix but instead Peacock, the subscription service of NBC. 

Those numbers have not been made available and there is every reason to believe that those numbers would restore WM to its status as WWE's number 1 PLE. 

But it is interesting to see the popularity of the Royal Rumble match remain as strong as ever among wrestling fans around the world.