In 2020, the XFL didn’t have a chance to compete with the NCAA men’s basketball tournament because the pandemic shut both events down. This year, the XFL did not fare well when facing March Madness.
Via SportsMediaWatch.com, the XFL averaged 264,000 viewers in games televised by ESPN, ESPN2, and FX in Week Five. It was a 48-percent drop from Week Four.
The most-watched game of the weekend occurred on Saturday night in St. Louis, when 320,000 tuned in for the game between the D.C. Defenders and the Battlehawks on FX.
The league opened the season with average viewership of 1.3 million.
This weekend, the numbers should increase. ABC has a game that won’t compete with the basketball tournament, at 1:00 p.m. ET.
While the numbers are far from horrible, it’s likely not what the XFL and the Disney networks envisioned.