An average of 1.19 million viewers tuned in to the first weekend of XFL games, per data from ShowBuzz Daily. Here’s what you need to know:

  • The Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon games (Vegas versus Arlington and St. Louis versus San Antonio) each topped 1.5 million viewers on ABC.
  • The least-watched game (751,000 viewers) came Saturday night as the Houston Roughnecks defeated the Orlando Guardians 33-12.
  • The numbers were down from the XFL’s last reboot in 2020, when each of the four games during the league’s first weekend averaged at least 2.5 million viewers.
  • The league will play its first of two Thursday night contests in Week 2. There is one Monday night game and one Friday night game also scheduled for later in the season.

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

How does this compare to XFL 2.0?

The 2020 edition of the XFL, then still under WWE boss Vince McMahon’s ownership, averaged 3.3 million viewers for its inaugural game between the D.C. Defenders and Seattle Dragons on ABC on a Saturday afternoon, and a second game that evening, between the L.A. Wildcats and Houston Roughnecks, averaged 3.29 million viewers on Fox.

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Two Sunday XFL games for the 2020 opening weekend averaged 3.39 million (Fox) and 2.5 million (ESPN). The league would shut down after five weeks because of the COVID-19 pandemic that mothballed nearly all sports for a time, and doomed the league financially until Dwayne Johnson and partners bought it for $15 million later in 2020 and relaunched it this year.

The original XFL launched in February 2001 as a joint effort by McMahon and NBC, and its first game averaged 15.7 million viewers during a very different era of television consumption trends and technology. The league, then a far more flamboyant and silly football property, completed that season but lost $70 million and was shuttered. — Shea

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How does this compare to other spring football leagues?

The Alliance of American Football, launched in February 2019 and shut down after eight weeks because of financial issues, averaged 3.25 million viewers on CBS for its opening game.

In April 2022, the rebooted minor-league version of the United States Football League debuted with a simulcast primetime game on Fox (which owns the USFL) and NBC in a game that averaged 3.06 million viewers. That debut telecast between the New Jersey Generals and Birmingham Stallions broke down last year as 1.75 million viewers for Fox and 1.31 million for NBC. The USFL returns on April 15 for its second season, the first spring pro football league to do so since the USFL’s namesake in 1983-84. — Shea

Other sports viewership

  • The final XFL game on Sunday was up against the NBA All-Star Game, which drew a record-low 4.59 million viewers on TNT/TBS.
  • The Daytona 500 on Fox on Sunday got 8.17 million viewers.
  • The final round of the PGA Tour’s Genesis Open — which featured Tiger Woods playing in his first non-major event since October 2020 — drew 3.42 million viewers on CBS, up from 2.61 million last year.

XFL viewership breakdown

  • Vegas vs. Arlington – 1.53 million (ABC, Saturday afternoon)
  • Seattle vs D.C. – 918,000 (ESPN, Sunday evening)
  • St. Louis vs. San Antonio – 1.57 million (ABC, Sunday afternoon)
  • Orlando vs. Houston – 751,000 (ESPN, Saturday evening)

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(Photo: Raymond Carlin III / USA Today)

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