The XFL Championship Game delivered the league’s top audience since Week 1, though it was no match for last year’s spring football title game.
Saturday’s Arlington-DC XFL Championship Game averaged a 0.8 rating and 1.44 million viewers on ABC, marking the largest XFL audience since Week 1 (St. Louis-San Antonio: 1.57M; Vegas-Arlington: 1.54M) and third-largest of the season. Among all spring football games, it ranks fourth for the year behind the aforementioned Week 1 XFL games and a post-Kentucky Derby USFL game on NBC earlier this month (Memphis-Michigan: 2.06M).
Viewership trailed last year’s lone spring football title game, the USFL championship on FOX (1.52M). That game aired on Fourth of July weekend and thus had the advantage of less competition (and the disadvantage of lower viewing levels).
The only other championship game in XFL history, the 2001 “Million Dollar Game” on NBC, averaged 2.91 million. It should be noted that 2.91 million viewers in 2001 is a far weaker performance relative to the rest of primetime than 1.44 million in 2023. The 2001 game was the least-watched “Big Four” program of the week, while Saturday’s game was not even the least-watched of the night (a rerun of NBC’s “The Wall” averaged 1.26 million).
Head-to-head, the XFL title game was no match for Major League Baseball action on FOX (1.0, 1.82M) or an NHL playoff game on ESPN (Stars-Kraken Game 6: 1.0, 2.04M) — though it did outdraw baseball in adults 18-34 (0.23 to 0.20). Among the “Big Four” broadcast networks, the XFL title game was the top primetime show in 18-34 and ranked second behind baseball in 18-49 (0.41 to 0.35).
As goes without saying, the XFL title game delivered the top spring football audience of the weekend. The USFL topped out at a 0.52 and 914,000 for Houston-Birmingham on FOX Saturday afternoon.
In other USFL action, NBC averaged a 0.49 and 757,000 for New Jersey-Philadelphia and FOX a 0.35 and 563,000 for Memphis-New Orleans on Sunday. The weekend’s lone game on cable, Pittsburgh-Michigan on USA Network Saturday, brought up the rear with a 0.15 and 256,000.
(Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 5.16, network PR)
