WWE has once again broken records with its first Premium Live Event of the year.
On February 1st, the promotion took over Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana to present the 38th annual Royal Rumble. With more than 70,000 fans reportedly in attendance for the event, the crowd was the biggest in Rumble history, once again highlighting how popular the brand is right now.
With the company having a standout 2024 as many financial and social records were broken repeatedly, more of the same was expected in 2025 as WWE’s popularity has continued to grow.
As noted on commentary and by Triple H in the post-show press conference, the Rumble drew the highest gate for a single night show and was the 3rd highest in history behind nights 1 and 2 of WrestleMania 40. As announced via press release, the 2025 event saw new records set for viewership, merchandise, sponsorship and social numbers:
February 3, 2025 – WWE, part of TKO Group Holdings (NYSE: TKO), today announced that Royal Rumble 2025, which emanated from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Saturday, became the most-successful and highest-grossing Royal Rumble event in company history.
Highlights include:
- GATE: Royal Rumble 2025 generated the largest gate for any single-night event in WWE history. Saturday’s PLE, which drew 70,342 fans to Lucas Oil Stadium, is only behind WrestleMania 40 Saturday & Sunday for any single-night gate.
- VIEWERSHIP: Royal Rumble 2025 set the event’s all-time viewership record, up nearly 14 percent domestically, distributed on Peacock, from last year’s record-setting audience. International viewing numbers are up even higher year-over-year with Royal Rumble shifting to Netflix globally.
- MERCHANDISE: In partnership with Fanatics, merchandise sales were up more than 95 percent versus the previous Royal Rumble record set last year in 2024, making Royal Rumble 2025 the highest-grossing non-WrestleMania event of all-time.
- SPONSORSHIP: Sponsorship revenue was up 94 percent versus the previous record set in 2024. Royal Rumble featured 14 total partners, with 100 percent of the matches sponsored.
- SOCIAL: Royal Rumble 2025 set a record for the most social video views in Royal Rumble history. WWE Superstar Bron Breakker spearing popular streamer IShowSpeed became the most-viewed Royal Rumble social post of all-time, generating more than 300,000,000 social views in less than 24 hours.
Royal Rumble 2025 marked the first Premium Live Event to take place in Indianapolis as part of a first-of-its-kind partnership struck last year with Indiana Sports Corp that will see WWE’s three largest stadium events – WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Royal Rumble – take place in Indianapolis.
The record-breaking event was highlighted by WWE Superstars Charlotte Flair and Jey Uso winning the Royal Rumble matches to earn world title bouts at WrestleMania.
WWE Royal Rumble Begins Road To WrestleMania
With Charlotte Flair and Jey Uso each punching their tickets to WrestleMania by winning their respective Royal Rumble matches, two major bouts are nearly confirmed for the show. Other highlights from the event included Cody Rhodes retaining the Undisputed Championship against Kevin Owens in a ladder match along with the returns of Alexa Bliss and AJ Styles in the Royal Rumble matches.