The consensus on WWE SummerSlam seems to be that is was a good but not all-time great premium live event (PLE). From the company’s perspective, however, it was definitely one of the best shows of all time.
As Paul “Triple H” Levesque predicted during the post-SummerSlam press conference (very) early Sunday morning, WWE announced today that the event on Saturday night at Ford Field in Detroit set a number of new records for any SummerSlam, including new high marks for gate, viewership, sponsorship and merchandise.
The gate of $8.5 million was the highest ever for any non-WrestleMania WWE show. Likewise for merchandise sales (no surprise given the lengthy lines in Detroit), which were up 60% from the previous record set two years ago. And the sponsorship haul of $7 million was obvious within the show itself, particularly from C4 energy drink and Slim Jim, which sponsored the 25-man battle royal won by LA Knight.
As far as fans watching at home on Peacock, it was the largest audience to ever watch a SummerSlam and one of the top three audiences for any WWE event since it started its streaming partnership with Peacock. The company didn’t specify what the other two were, but logic suggests they were two of the more recent editions of WrestleMania.
WWE seemingly has a new announcement of this type on a monthly basis now, though its hot streak has been aided by heading to markets that were somewhat starved for big shows — like Money in the Bank in London in June, which was WWE’s highest-grossing arena event ever. Perhaps a truer test will come next month when Payback is held in Pittsburgh, a lower profile PLE in a smaller U.S. market.
Still, the impressive numbers do paint a picture that fans are eating up what WWE is serving at the moment, and SummerSlam is a sign that the momentum doesn’t look to be slowing as we head into the fall.