XFL week two has come and gone, bringing much excitement to football fans across the country. We saw four more games this weekend, featured on ESPN, ESPN2, and FX channels. Now, official XFL TV ratings have been released for each matchup.
Breaking: #XFL Week Two TV Ratings on Sunday:
Orlando/SA (ESPN): 781,000
Houston/Arlington (ESPN2): 678,000As previously reported per @ByMikeMitchell, Seattle/St. Louis had 553k viewers on Thursday. Vegas/DC number on FX is still unknown.
— James Larsen (@JamesLarsenPFN) February 28, 2023
TV Ratings For XFL Week Two:
Seattle Sea Dragons vs. St. Louis Battlehawks (FX): 553,000
Vegas Vipers vs. DC Defenders (FX): 601,000
Orlando Guardians vs. San Antonio Brahmas (ESPN): 781,000
Houston Roughnecks vs. Arlington Renegades (ESPN2): 678,000
For context, streaming services such as ESPN+ are not included in these ratings. With how prominent alternative outlets have become alongside cable over the past couple of years, it would be expected that the final tallies are higher than calculated here.
These numbers are a drop from week two in 2020, which is no surprise.
TV Ratings For XFL Week Two In 2020:
DC Defenders vs. New York Guardians (ABC): 2.1M
Seattle Dragons vs. Tampa Bay Vipers (FOX): 2.3M
Los Angeles Wildcats vs. Dallas Renegades (ABC): 2.4M
Houston Roughnecks vs. St. Louis Battlehawks (FS1): 1.3M
Will Vegas Viewership Impact The XFL?
The XFL's DC Defenders-Las Vegas Outlaws game drew 601,000 viewers to FX on Saturday night.
— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) February 28, 2023
One of the surprising numbers from this week was FX. The network had over 550,000 viewers for Thursday night’s game – and then, surpassed 600,000 on Saturday (including ESPN Deportes).
It will be interesting to see if Saturday night’s game has an impact on XFL viewership moving forward. As previously covered, the situation in Vegas was far from ideal. The venue, gameplay, and production were all sub-par compared to what we’re used to seeing from the XFL. Will this actually impact the overall viewership, who knows. Time will tell.
My personal thoughts:
– ESPN2 number is really solid. 678,000 viewers for a channel that averaged 335k in 2022 is excellent.
– ESPN number is a bit disappointing, especially considering what 2020 looked like.
With this in mind, these #XFL numbers don't include ESPN+.
— James Larsen (@JamesLarsenPFN) February 28, 2023
Overall, these are encouraging numbers for the XFL, Disney, and ESPN. With the power streaming services currently hold, things are looking decent after two weeks.
What are your thoughts on these XFL TV Ratings? What should we expect next week, with three games on FX? Let us know down in the comments below, or join the conversation on Discord!
