A new report from Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio has provided a significant update on the future of AEW’s television ratings, stating that viewership from the Max streaming service will eventually be included in the numbers reported by Nielsen starting sometime in 2026. This is a major development for AEW, as the company began simulcasting its weekly shows, Dynamite and Collision, on the Warner Bros. Discovery streaming platform in January of this year. However, the viewership from Max has not been included in the publicly reported Nielsen ratings, a fact that was recently confirmed by WBD. The inclusion of these numbers in the future will provide a more complete and accurate picture of AEW’s total audience.
Meltzer explained the upcoming change and the current uncertainty surrounding the television ratings landscape.
“The thing is, in the long run, in 2026, at some point in 2026, these numbers are going to include Max. They do not know, but they will be integrated in. So it’ll look better for AEW, but if TV is down this much — again, if it was only AEW or only WWE, you know, you would say one thing, but it’s all of pro wrestling, and it’s not happening with other things. They’re [Nielsen] also apparently measuring wrestling different from sports, which is weird, but yeah, there’s just a lot of different things. We just don’t know all the answers.”
The discussion about ratings has been a major topic in the wrestling industry since Nielsen implemented its new “Big Data + Panel” measurement system, which has generally resulted in lower reported numbers for both WWE and AEW.
Thanks for checking out this article. Make sure to follow Jeff Jarrett and all things GFE on Facebook.
