Mixed Match Challenge viewership drops in week 2

There’s always bound to be a decline from the first episode of a new show to the next. People will check out the start of something and then decide they don’t like it, or that they don’t like it enough to make time for it considering all the other options available. So it’s not shocking viewership is down for the second week of WWE’s Mixed Match Challenge (MMC) show on Facebook Watch.

Now, these numbers aren’t final - nor will they be for a long while, as episodes are available on demand in the United States (other regions, like the United Kingdom, may get it on WWE Network). And it’s harder to judge what kind of audience is required to deem a Facebook show a success - there’s less data to compare than television or even OTT streaming.

But WWE can’t be thrilled that live viewership of MMC dropped from a peak audience of approximately 135,600 for the Jan. 16 premiere to ~92,000 for Jan. 23’s follow-up edition.

Total views for each at 12PM Eastern on the day following the live broadcast showed an even steeper decline, going from 1.2 million for Sasha Banks and Finn Bálor’s win over Natalya and Shinsuke Nakamura to ~650,000 for this week’s Asuka and The Miz vs. Big E and Carmella match. It has picked up another 100K since this afternoon, so it’s possible the audience is still there, but the urgency is gone.

The entire concept is an experiment, and might get tweaked as things proceed over its run. It’ll be interesting to watch for patterns and see if the Jan. 23 audience sticks around, or if week-to-week drops continue going forward.