In the latest issue of Sports Business Journal, the cover story was about the age of television viewers for all types of sports going up drastically since the year 2000.
As far as professional wrestling goes, the story indicates that the average age of wrestling fans in the year 2000 was 28 years old, in 2006 it went up to 33, and by 2016 it went all the way up to 54. While 54 seems way too high, the belief is that the average of Raw Viewers is in the early 40s and Smackdown Viewers is just a little bit higher at around mid-to-late 40s.
These statistics highlight the fact that the fans who were in their late teens to early 20s in 1997 are now in their late 30s to early 40s and this demographic is largely still around. However, there has been a huge decrease in the number of kids and teenagers watching compared to 20 years ago.
One way to look at it is from the perspective of WWE Live Events where in the 80s and 90s, it was the kids who talked their parents into going to a wrestling event whereas now it is the other way around where it is parents who end up taking their kids, but these kids don’t watch it on TV.
For those who are interested, seen below is the average age for other sports which changed from the year 2000 to the year 2016:
– Figure skating: 54 to 64
– Horse racing: 51 to 63
– Men’s tennis: 51 to 61
– Women’s tennis: 58 to 56
– Olympics: 45 to 53
– College football: 47 to 52
– College basketball: 44 to 52
– NFL: 44 to 50
– NBA: 40 to 42
– NHL: 33 to 49
– MLB: 52 to 57
– Boxing: 45 to 49
– UFC: 34 to 49 (UFC did not have TV in 2000, so this change is from 2006 to 2016)
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter