WWE Royal Rumble sets live gate, viewership records

Royal Rumble 2023 was a record-breaking success for WWE.

WWE issued a press release today touting that this year’s Royal Rumble set live gate and viewership records for the event. The show, which took place at the Alamodome in San Antonio, generated $7.7 million in ticket sales. That’s up more than 50 percent from the previous record, which was set in 2017 when the Royal Rumble was also held at the Alamodome.

The Royal Rumble was up 52 percent from last year’s previous record Rumble viewership. Both the 2023 and 2022 versions of the event aired on Peacock.

“In addition, the 2023 Royal Rumble broke all-time venue merchandise and sponsorship records. Merchandise sales were up 135 percent versus the record set in 2022. Royal Rumble sponsorship revenue was up nearly 200 percent versus 2022 and featured the first-ever sponsored match (Mtn Dew Pitch Black) and sponsored countdown clock (Applebee’s),” WWE wrote.

“On social, the Roman Reigns-Sami Zayn videos generated 20 million-plus views across all WWE platforms and became the most-viewed WWE clip of 2023. Additional highlights include Logan Paul and Ricochet’s high-flying collision which amassed 26.5 million views across WWE and Paul’s platforms, and the launch of Reigns’ TikTok account which netted 100K followers in the first 24 hours.”

Saturday’s pay-per-view featured Cody Rhodes winning the men’s Royal Rumble match and Rhea Ripley winning the women’s Royal Rumble match. Reigns retained his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against Kevin Owens in the main event of the PPV, leading to an angle where Zayn split from The Bloodline.