Did the start of the annual Major League Baseball World Series affect numbers for WWE’s Friday night program last week?
Friday’s episode of WWE SmackDown saw a slight dip in total viewership but still managed to deliver one of its strongest numbers since Nielsen’s new “Big Data + Panel” measurement system was implemented.
According to Wrestlenomics, the October 24th broadcast averaged 1.147 million viewers on USA Network — down roughly three percent from the previous week.
Even with the drop, it marked SmackDown’s second-largest audience total since Nielsen rolled out its new hybrid ratings model.
In the key 18–49 demographic, the show scored a 0.29 rating, up 3.6 percent from last week. That number represents SmackDown’s best performance in the demo since the September 26 episode, which was still measured under the previous ratings system.
The episode faced steep competition from Game 1 of MLB’s World Series on FOX, which delivered the second-highest opening game ratings for a World Series in the past seven years. The baseball broadcast averaged 12.5 million viewers and a massive 2.53 demo rating, while the pre-game show drew 7.244 million viewers with a 1.30 rating, both airing directly opposite SmackDown.
Despite the sports competition, SmackDown topped all of cable television for the night and finished third overall across all TV networks.
For comparison, SmackDown’s viewership under Nielsen’s old system was down 19.1 percent year-over-year, while its 18–49 rating dropped 32.6 percent from the same week in 2024.
Featured below are the top five most viewed segments on WWE’s official YouTube channel from the 10/24 episode of WWE SmackDown (not counting the full highlights video, which drew one million total views as of this writing):
- * FULL MATCH: Drew McIntyre drops Cody Rhodes after defeating Jimmy Uso (563,000 views)
* Damian Priest costs Aleister Black his title match against Ilja Dragunov (443,000 views)
* Jade Cargill unleashes a surprise attack on Tiffany Stratton (443,000 views)
* Jimmy Uso incites a brawl with Drew McIntyre (418,000 views)
* Jimmy Uso brawls with Drew McIntyre backstage (314,000 views)
For those who missed the show, you can check out our detailed WWE SmackDown Results 10/24/25 here at WrestlingHeadlines.com.
Make sure to join us here at WrestlingHeadlines.com every week for the absolute best live WWE Friday Night SmackDown results coverage on the world wide web!
