Analysis of how crowded the ring was during the Greatest Royal Rumble match

The Greatest Royal Rumble match lasted 77 minutes and 19 seconds (77m 19s).

This text graphic provides time stamps for each superstar’s arrival and exit from the match, as well as showing who the longest lasting superstars were as the match progressed.

If you add up each wrestler’s survival time, it results in a total survival time of 7h 30m 56s. Given that the match lasted a total of 77m 19s, that comes out to an average of 5.8 competitors in the ring at any given second. That makes this the 16th most crowded Royal Rumble match ever out of all 33 matches, and right in line with the typical crowdedness of an average Royal Rumble match.

When I talk about how many superstars were “in the ring,” I’m counting all active superstars in the match, whether they are literally inside the ring or not. It does not, however, count a superstar’s time outside the ring prior to initially stepping foot into the ring. So Curt Hawkins did not receive any credit for running away from Braun Strowman on the entrance ramp.

Here is a more accurate way to understand how many men were active at any given time. This chart shows the total time that the ring was filled with an exact number of discrete superstars at once.

For the first 12m 07s of the match, the average ring crowdedness was 2.8 active superstars at any given second. Bryan, Ziggler, and Henry dominated this early section while other competitors like Kanellis, Axel, Sin Cara, and Sumi didn’t survive for long.

The ring had 4 superstars at the timestamp 12m 07s, gradually rose up to 7 men in the ring, and then dropped back down to 4 men at the timestamp 22m 36s after Kurt Angle joined the match and quickly tossed out three competitors. During this time, the average ring crowdedness was 5.1 active superstars at any given second.

The ring was then filled with at least 5 superstars from the timestamps 22m 36s through 57m 42s.

Peak crowdedness for the match occurred between the timestamps 35m 56s through 55m 14s, which saw an average of 8.7 active superstars at any given second. The ring only dipped under 8 men for 0m 44s of that duration. The maximum crowdedness of 11 men in the ring was achieved when Braun Strowman entered the ring at 55m 03s.

Not surprisingly, Braun’s entry into the match quickly emptied the ring. There were only 4 men remaining at the time stamp 57m 46s, so the ring dropped from 11 men to 4 men in less than 3 minutes. Tye Dillinger was the only new entry into the match in that short time span, but he was quickly tossed out as one of Braun’s victims.

The ring crowdedness kept alternating between 3 and 4 men between the timestamps 57m 42s and 66m 15s. This portion was dominated by Bryan, Strowman, Elias, and Lashley, with brief appearances from Curt Hawkins and the Great Khali.

The final 5 entrants into the match all entered without any eliminations taking place in between, and so the ring was filled back up with 8 men once Chris Jericho entered the ring at the timestamp 72m 01s.

The 8m 48s time span between Khali’s elimination (63m 47s) and Benjamin’s elimination (72m 35s) was the longest stretch in the match without any eliminations. The only other 5+ minute stretch without any eliminations occurred earlier between the exits of Ziggler (21m 43s) and Konnor (27m 25s).

When Jericho entered the ring, the match essentially turned into an 8-man Battle Royal to the finish between Bryan, Strowman, Lashley, Owens, Shane, Benjamin, Big Cass, and Jericho.

This final segment of the Greatest Royal Rumble match lasted 5m 18s, and at that point Braun Strowman emerged as the winner.