WrestleMania 38 beats Super Bowl 56 on social media; breaks WWE records

WrestleMania may be referred to as the Super Bowl of pro wrestling events, but this year, the Showcase of the Immortals had a bigger social impact than the big game itself. In addition to breaking attendance and revenue records, WWE set records on social media with a record number of Video Views, Hours and Impressions for any event in WWE history.

Headlined by the WWE Universal Heavyweight Championship Unification Match (billed as the biggest in the event’s history) between Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar, the two night event shattered the social reach of last year’s WrestleMania in Tampa, Florida.

• Record 1.1 Billion Views across Facebook, Instagram, Snap, TikTok, Twitter – an increase of 47% from WrestleMania 37
• Record 785 Million Minutes or 13 Million Hours of video consumed on social, an increase of 29% from WrestleMania 37
• Record 2.2 Billion Impressions, an increase of 10% from WrestleMania 37

WWE also saw the company’s two highest engaged posts in history during WrestleMania weekend. Cody Rhodes’ return to WWE generated 500,000 engagements during its broadcast, and both of Pat McAfee’s matches against Austin Theory and Mr. McMahon topped out at 450,000 engagements.

According to video analytics company Conviva, WrestleMania 38 also beat Super Bowl 56 on Social Media via impressions, video views, video watch time and engagements.

• Impressions: WWE: 2.2 Billion Impressions vs. Super Bowl: 1.8 Billion Impressions
• Video Views: WWE: 1.1 Billion Video Views vs. Super Bowl: 618 Million Video Views
• Video Watch Time: WWE: 13.1 Million Hours compared vs. Super Bowl 3.56 Million Hours
• Engagements: WWE: 87 Million Engagements vs. Super Bowl: 78 Million Engagements

This year’s WrestleMania was the most-attended and highest-grossing in the 38-year history of the event. 156,352 fans from all 50 states and 53 countries attended both WrestleMania Saturday and Sunday at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, TX.

WrestleMania weekend was a profitable one for the Dallas/Fort Worth area as well, with a projected economic boost of over $200 million, according to the Dallas Morning News.

WWE has announced that WrestleMania 39 will once again take place over two nights when the Grandest Stage of Them All is constructed inside SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. That’s the exact same venue that this year’s NFL Championship game between the home town Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals took place.

The $5 billion state-of-the-art facility will also host the College Football Playoff National Championship game in January next year. WrestleMania 39 will take place on Sat., April 1 and Sun., April 2, 2023.

You can check out Cody Rhodes’ media scrum following his return to WWE, in it’s entirety, in the video above.

Rick Ucchino can be reached at Rick.Bleav@gmail.com. You can follow him on Twitter @RickUcchino and make sure to subscribe to the Bleav in Pro Wrestling YouTube Channel.