MLW Fightland On Vice Viewership And Key Demo Rating Revealed

MLW's one-hour pre-taped Fightland special at 10pm ET drew 40,000 viewers on Vice TV last night, according to Nielsen via Wrestlenomics.

The Fightland special drew a 0.01 rating in the 18-49 key demo rating. That 0.01 rating represents 16,000 18-49 viewers.

Fightland was lower in the key 18-49 demo and in total viewership than the average of the last 4 weeks that Vice drew in the same timeslot, but higher in the 18-34 demo.

Fightland opened with Yoshihiro Tajiri capturing the MLW World Middleweight Title in a Fatal 4 Way, by defeating former champion Myron Reed, Aramis, and Arez. The second match, and the main event, saw MLW National Openweight Champion Alexander Hammerstone capture the MLW World Heavyweight Title by winning a Title vs. Title match over Jacob Fatu, becoming a double champion.

To compare, MLW Fusion on beIN Sports averaged around 10,500 viewers for its first-run episodes in 2020, up 38% from 7,600 in 2019, according to Nielsen data via Wrestlenomics. So far in 2021, Fusion has averaged 4,200 viewers, down 60% from last year's average. The decline coincides with beIN's decreasing household coverage in the United States. The network was already in a small minority of homes with cable TV, and has fallen from being in around 16 million homes in 2019, to 10 million as of August 2021.

To compare, the USA Network, home of WWE RAW and WWE NXT, and TNT, home of AEW Dynamite and AEW Rampage, are in virtually every cable home in the United Stats, which is around 80 million. Vice TV is in 60 million to 70 million homes, giving MLW their biggest potential audience ever. The most highly-viewed first-run broadcast of MLW Fusion on beIN Sports was watched by around 27,000 viewers on January 25, 2020, according to Wrestlenomics. Viewership in the 18-49 key demographic for that episode was 8,500. MLW's peak viewers for the 18-49 key demo was around 13,800 viewers on October 5, 2019, which was good for a 0.01 key demo rating.

As noted, Vice's Dark Side of the Ring episode on Ion Croitoru (Bruiser Bedlam, Johnny K9) served as the lead-in for the Fightland special, drawing 137,000 viewers with a 0.05 rating in the 18-49 demographic. You can click here for our full DSOTR ratings report for this week.

Stay tuned for more.