WWE Network ended Q1 2020 with a total of 1.46 million paid subscribers, an 8% decrease from the same period of last year but in line with the company’s guidance. The Network – including traditional pay-per-view buys – brought in $43.5 million in revenue for the company during the quarter.
The 1.46 million figure is slightly up from Q4 2019 which had 1.42 million subscribers but with the Royal Rumble it was predicted that they’d get a bit more than the previous quarter.
One good news from the Network side is that subscribers peaked at 2.1 million on April 6 due to WrestleMania. WWE said that it was the highest amount of weekend subscriber additions in WWE Network history. While not all of them are paid, judging by figures released there are around 500,000 free accounts which signed up for WrestleMania.
During the conference call, interim CFO Frank Riddick guessed that a free tier of the WWE Network will be permanently in place in Q4 2020. WWE had tried this leading up to WrestleMania by unlocking tons of content but that free period has now ended.