Whether they did not trust the WWE Network to broadcast the show without a hitch, lacked the technology to stream the network on a suitable screen or simply did not care, a significant number of households opted to purchase WWE’s annual WrestleMania 30 on pay-per-view.
As a result, the world’s leading wrestling company is able to report that its 30th WrestleMania drew a record household audience in the United States.
According to the release, there were “nearly 400,000 domestic pay-per-view buying homes for WrestleMania 30.” When combined with the 667,000 confirmed WWE Network subscribers (under the assumption that nearly everyone who subscribed to the network was watching), WWE calculates that WrestleMania 30 “reached a record 1 million households in the U.S. alone.”
Hoping to combat the criticism–and stock market tumble–that accompanied its report that the network had only secured 667,000 subscribers ahead of WrestleMania, WWE added, “WWE Network launched on February 24 in the U.S. and successfully streamed six hours of live coverage of WrestleMania 30 on Sunday, April 6. Additionally, more than 7.1 million hours of video content was viewed on WWE Network during WrestleMania Week from Tuesday, April 1 through Tuesday, April 8.”