Summary

The first hour of WWE Backlash averaged 998,000 viewers on ESPN2 and drew a 0.33 rating in the 18-49 demographic.

The special presentation also streamed on ESPN Unlimited, but viewership figures for that platform were not released. The ESPN2 portion of the show featured Seth Rollins vs. Bron Breakker and Trick Williams vs. Sami Zayn, the same pair of bouts WWE had announced in advance for the simulcast window.

How Backlash compares to WrestleMania 42

This was the second straight WWE premium live event to place its opening hour on ESPN or ESPN2. The previous test came with WrestleMania 42, where night one drew 1.62 million viewers on ESPN2 and night two drew 1.82 million viewers on ESPN.

Backlash finished well below those WrestleMania numbers, though the comparison comes with an obvious difference in scale given WrestleMania's place on WWE's calendar.

What the ESPN2 number means for WWE

A 998,000 viewer first hour still gives WWE a solid television data point for a non-WrestleMania premium live event. Just as importantly, the lack of ESPN Unlimited numbers leaves the full audience picture incomplete, so the ESPN2 figure only tells part of the story for how Backlash performed across both platforms.

Sources

As reported by Wrestlenomics.