A tumultuous week for the Alliance of American Football resulted in a weekend of increased interest.
Via Andrew Bucholtz of AwfulAnnouncing.com, the AAF’s Week Three games on NFL Network had significantly increased ratings over Week Two.
The official numbers, first reported by SportsTVRatings.com, show that the Saturday night game generated an average audience of 491,000, up from 424,000 in Week Two. On Sunday night, the prime-time game drew an average crowd of 515,000, a 90,000 viewer increase from Week Two’s comparable crowd of 425,000.
Making the Sunday night number even more impressive is the fact that the game competed head to head with the Oscars. And while there may not be a significant overlap in demographic, a lot of people watched the Oscars. Still, 515,000 didn’t -- and that’s good for the AAF.
Whether the AAF can continue to steadily grow remains to be seen. For now, though, the AAF should be happy that it has carved a niche that maybe, in time, can grow into something much larger.