Amid ongoing discussion about its interest in sports rights, Netflix has seen WWE content amass over 300m viewing hours on the service in H1 2025, following its launch in January. Weekly flagship WWE Raw is the top draw, building a consistent live audience that averaged 6.5m viewing hours per broadcast, while WrestleMania 2025 delivered 19.8m viewing hours across its April double bill.

This reflects a wider market trend captured in new research from Ampere Analysis, whereby streamers are accelerating investment in exclusive live rights to drive habit and reduce churn. Indeed, the annual value of sports rights held by subscription OTT services has risen from US$3.2bn in 2020 to US$12.3bn in 2025.

The success Netflix has seen with WWE Raw in particular is significant. Across its episodes it generated 88.6 million total aggregated views (defined as viewing hours per hour of content each episode) in H1 2025. The high viewing is an impressive feat as it was available in only 12 markets covering ~52% of Netflix subscribers.

WWE Raw’s ability to garner a consistent weekly audience has also helped reduce subscriber churn: Among US users who signed up for the Raw premiere, only 18.2% churned after 60 days, according to Ampere’s SVoD Economics data, outperforming one-off Netflix live events such as Jake Paul vs Tyson (25.6%) and the NFL Christmas game day (27.2%).

The addition of WWE has also helped Netflix grow its US subscriber base, despite what is often seen as a saturated market: Ampere’s consumer survey shows US WWE viewers with a Netflix subscription growing from 62% in Q3 2024 to 76% in Q1 2025 (vs 59% and 61% across all respondents).

Outside the US, moreover, the WWE has broad appeal that offers further opportunities for Netflix. Countries such as South Africa, the Philippines and India all show an even higher level of fan engagement with WWE than the US, but as Netflix does not yet carry WWE in those markets, there is further growth potential if rights expand.

Though the costs can be high, the US experience with WWE to date underscores why Netflix and other streaming platforms are increasingly looking to invest in premium, recurring live sports rights.

Ampere clients can read a fuller analysis for Netflix viewing in H1 2025 by clicking here

*Release week refers to the week of the live broadcast event starting from the first on January 6th. Viewing hours are the total hours reported for H1 2025, including both live and archive viewing