Jumping off the top rope and landing a flying elbow on the rest of its competition, WWE last week became the number one sports channel on YouTube. With more than 4.2 billion YouTube video views in the past year, WWE pulled ahead of the NBA, MLB, NHL, and NFL, along with ESPN and NASCAR; its 5.2 million subscribers is more than that of the other six channels combined.
On social, WWE boasts more than 450 million combined social media followers globally, nearly a 75% increase year-over-year.
While Nielsen Social may not count the WWE as a sport in its Twitter TV Ratings, that’s OK with the professional wrestling league: its ‘WWE Monday Night RAW’ often tops the daily chart (in ‘Series and Specials) on Tuesday, and is always a Top 10 finisher on the weekly version of the chart.
And as sports is superstar-driven, John Cena is the number one most-followed active American athlete on Facebook, with more than 36 million “Likes.”