The third edition of the XFL got off to a much slower start than its predecessors, including the USFL and Alliance of American Football.
The first four XFL telecast windows declined at least 50% in viewership from the equivalent windows of the previous XFL three years ago. The inaugural game, Vegas-Arlington on ABC Saturday afternoon, averaged 1.54 million viewers — down 54% from the inaugural game on the same network three years ago (3.30M). (Keep in mind the viewership three years ago did not include out-of-home viewing.)
Viewership also trailed the inaugural games of last year’s USFL (3.07M) and the 2019 Alliance of American Football (3.25M), with the caveat that those aired in primetime (and in the case of the USFL, on two broadcast networks).
ABC’s second game — St. Louis-San Antonio on Sunday — was the most-watched of the opening weekend with 1.57 million, down 54% from the equivalent FOX window three years ago (3.39M). Viewership also declined 27% from last year’s first Sunday afternoon USFL game on NBC (2.15M).
Shifting to cable, ESPN and FX combined to average 1.14 million for Orlando-Houston on Saturday night — down 65% from a primetime window on FOX three years ago (3.29M). Seattle-DC averaged a weekend-low 918,000 on ESPN alone Sunday night, down 63% from the same ESPN window in 2020 (2.50M). It took the prior XFL five weeks before it dipped below the million viewer mark for the first time.
Only two of the 20 games in the prior XFL averaged a smaller audience than Seattle-D.C. — the two final games ever played on what turned out to be the final Sunday of play (767K on FS1, 833K on ESPN).
XFL opening weekend viewership vs. prior leagues
(Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 2.22)
