WWE SummerSlam 2021 has broken all records to become the most viewed event in the wrestling company’s history. The star-studded lineup this time around especially with AEW having CM Punk making a return had to be a deciding factor.
With the ‘Beast Incarnate’ Brock Lesnar returning along with Roman Reigns retaining his Universal Championship after destroying John Cena, SummerSlam 2021 was a treat for the fans. It was one of the highly anticipated events of the year and it lived up to its hype.
This year’s SummerSlam was not only the most viewed across the Peacock and the WWE Network, but it also recorded the highest in-house audience after the pandemic. Moreover, merchandise sales and sponsorships grew exponentially. There has been a humongous jump in the number of viewers with a 55% increase as compared to 2020. Additionally, merchandise sales have increased by a margin of 155% in comparison to the last edition. Sponsorship deals have grown by 18% vs 2020.
WWE’s presence on social media platforms also grew to great heights with Lesnar’s return becoming the highest-watched Instagram video of all time leaving behind John Cena’s return clip at Money in the Bank. According to data, they have accumulated about a billion views on social media. Moreover, SummerSlam 2021 witnessed record crowds with 51,236 fans attending the in-house event.
“In our merchandise business, our e-commerce sales—like any other company during the pandemic—were very, very high. Going back into arenas, our sales of in-venue merchandise; also up about 50%,” said WWE chief revenue officer Nick Khan.
“Why is that? We’ve sort of created a localized product per city. So [at SummerSlam], there’s going to be a lot of Las Vegas-centric WWE merchandise that you can only buy in-venue, and ultimately it’ll go online also. But rather than just hoping and expecting that our fans are going to buy the same Roman Reigns shirt that they could have bought a week ago online, we have a collab with the Raiders, we have a collab with the Golden Knights…”