Sunday’s XFL game on ESPN didn’t draw quite the numbers of the Saturday debut on ABC, but still showed solid interest in the league.
ESPN announced that the St. Louis BattleHawks’ 15-9 victory over the Dallas Renegades averaged 2,495,000 viewers. Viewership peaked with 2,928,000 viewers, and the peak came at the end of the game, suggesting that fans were interested in seeing who would win, rather than just turning on the game out of curiosity early on but turning it off quickly.
St. Louis was by far the highest-rated local market, which suggests fans there are excited about the XFL coming to town after the Rams departed for Los Angeles.
Overall, the viewership news for the XFL’s first weekend seems to be good. Only time will tell whether fans keep watching as the season wears on, or if fans quickly abandon the league as they did a year ago with the Alliance of American Football. But so far, the XFL is likely pleased with the results.