WWE Royal Rumble 2023 News: Peacock, Attendance, Gate, PPV Buys, NXT, Backstage Reaction

Feb 3, 2023

Royal Rumble 2023’s Viewership, Attendance, Gate Revenues, & PPV Buys

WWE’s Royal Rumble 2023 event reportedly had a viewership of over 2 million on NBC’s Peacock streaming service, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that this was up compared to last year’s event of 1.3 million viewers on the service.

In regards to attendance, Meltzer reported that while WWE announced an attendance of 51,338 for the event, the real number was around 47,585 based on tickets distributed and WWE’s setup for the event. Meltzer reported that the split was around 42,000 paid and the rest as comp tickets. Meltzer also reported that it is possible that WWE’s number of over 51,000 for the event could be true but only by counting everyone working at the show, media, and others who would not traditionally be counted towards attendance figures.

In terms of live gate, Meltzer reported that this year’s gate of $7.7 million was the 12th largest ever for a wrestling event in wrestling history. Meltzer also reported that this was the largest gate for a non-WrestleMania event in the United States and the second largest ever for a non-WrestleMania event globally, only behind this past September’s Clash at the Castle event in Cardiff, Wales.

In regards to pay-per-view buys, Meltzer reported that the event is currently estimated to have generated 16,000 buys based on early data and estimates. In terms of comparisons, this reportedly was up 3.2% compared to the final PPV buys for last year’s Royal Rumble event but down compared to this past July’s SummerSlam 2022 PPV buys of 18,000 and this past April’s WrestleMania 38 PPV buys of slightly over 20,000 for each night.

More on NXT Talents Involved in Women’s Royal Rumble Match

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that WWE officials had only requested for female talent from their NXT brand in order to help fill out the Women’s Royal Rumble match.

The reason why no male NXT talents were involved in the Men’s Royal Rumble match reportedly was due to WWE officials had already filled out all of the spots with main roster talent, Booker T, and Logan Paul.

NXT officials reportedly did not have any input on how long NXT talents would last in the Women’s match nor was this meant to serve as a call-up to the main roster.

It was reported that while Ivy Nile had been among those from NXT brought in for the event, WWE officials only planned to use her as an alternate in case something happened to one of the official competitors for the Women’s match.

Backstage Reaction to Royal Rumble 2023 Event

Fightful Select reported in a separate report that their sources confirmed that WWE Executive Chairman Vince McMahon did not attend this past Saturday’s Royal Rumble 2023 event nor was his influence felt at the event backstage.

One talent spoken to reportedly stated that the process for this year’s event was the easiest it has been in a long time in the company due to McMahon not being involved. This same talent reportedly also stated that there was less last minute changes being made and described it as being a “dream” compared to the issues with last year’s event.

Those spoken to reportedly stated that while morale was among its lowest points during last year’s event, the general mood and atmosphere leading into this year’s event was much more laid back and positive.

NXT talent spoken to stated that there was a lot more optimism within NXT following WWE lifting their one-year ban on NXT talents not being allowed to compete at the Royal Rumble.