Royal Rumble go home delivers a decisive ratings win for SmackDown

SmackDown has been on a ratings roll this year. In its new three-hour format, each 2025 episode of the show has finished first or second among all Friday night original programming.

That streak continued with strong numbers for Jan. 31’s Royal Rumble go home episode. According to Programming Insider, last Friday’s SmackDown drew an average hourly audience of 1,578,000 viewers and a .51 rating among 18-49 year olds. That’s an 8% increase from the previous week in overall viewers, and the best number in that metric since Nov. 22. Ratings were up 16% week-over-week, with last Friday’s being the best since the show moved to USA last September.

The broadcast networks returned to new programming after airing reruns and specials for most of the last two months, but that didn’t slow SmackDown’s roll. WWE was easily first in the ratings again; the NBC sitcom Happy’s Place was a distant second with a .31 in the demo. The blue show also bested head-to-head competition from FOX’s college basketball game (Indiana/Purdue, which tied Happy’s Place’s number) and ESPN’s NBA one (Denver/Philadelphia had a .28 demo rating).

Rumble fallout should keep this train a rollin’ this Friday. We’ll find out next week, and add the answer to our running tally of the past year’s worth of SmackDown’s numbers below:

• Feb. 2, 2024 - 2.47 million viewers / .74 demo rating
• Feb. 9 - 2.58 / .75
• Feb. 16 - 2.56 / .75
• Feb. 23 - 2.27 / .62
• Mar. 1 - 2.35 / .64
• Mar. 8 - 2.44 / .69
• Mar. 15 - 2.34 / .68
• Mar. 22 - 2.24 / .61
• Mar. 29 - 2.20 / .60
• April 5 - 2.60 / .77
• April 12 - 2.5 / .76
• April 19 - 2.33 / .63
• April 26 - 2.14 / .58
• May 3 - 2.14 / .60
• May 10 - 2.13 / .62
• May 17 - 2.19 / .59
• May 24 - 2.15 / .56
• May 31 - 2.31 / .65
• June 7 - 2.21 / .61
• June 14 - 1.96 / 52
• June 21 - 2.36 / .73
• June 28 - 2.26 / .66
• July 5 - 2.26 / .66
• July 12 - 2.36 / .70
• July 19 - 2.31 / .65
• July 26 - 2.06 / .52
• Aug. 2 - 2.18 / .60
• Aug. 9 - 2.27 / .64
• Aug. 16 - 2.25 / .61
• Aug. 23 - 2.05 / .56
• Aug. 30 - 2.05 / .53
• Sept. 6 - 1.77 / .45
• Sept. 13* - 1.72 / .55
• Sept. 20 - 1.49 / .45
• Sept. 27 - 1.57 / .45
• Oct. 4 - 1.52 / .47
• Oct. 11 - 1.65 / .49
• Oct. 18 - 1.38 / .42
• Oct. 25 - 1.42 / .43
• Nov. 1 - 1.43 / .42
• Nov. 8 - 1.53 / .47
• Nov. 15 - 1.23 / .32
• Nov. 22 - 1.58 / .46
• Nov. 29 - 1.34 / .40
• Dec. 6 - 1.49 /.44
• Dec. 13 - 1.53 / .47
• Dec. 20 - 1.33 / .37
• Dec. 27 - 1.44 / .41
• Jan. 3, 2025** - 1.53 / .45
• Jan. 10 - 1.44 / .40
• Jan. 17 - 1.40 / . 42
• Jan. 24 - 1.44 / .44
• Jan. 31 - 1.58 / .51

* Moved from FOX to USA Network (broadcast to cable)
** Added a third hour

For complete results and this week’s SmackDown live blog click here, to read a recap & review of the night’s events click here, and to check out video highlights of the episode click here.