WWE passes 100m YouTube subs; Prime deal
March 11, 2024
By Nik Roseveare
WWE has surpassed 100 million subscribers on its official YouTube channel, becoming one of only 10 channels worldwide to achieve the milestone.
The return of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has helped fuel the channel’s subscriber total in recent months, highlighted by the WrestleMania XL Kickoff event in Las Vegas on February 8th which saw over 100,000 subscribers added in a day. Furthermore, every segment featuring The Rock since his surprise return on Friday Night SmackDown in September 2023 has drawn more than one million views. Prior to The Rock’s return to WWE television, the company was tracking to reach the 100 million subscriber milestone in late April.
With more than 100 million subscribers and 81 billion lifetime views, WWE is the largest sports channel on YouTube and #10 overall. The new subscriber total is more than the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL combined.
WWE joined YouTube in 2007 and has since created and curated exclusive and original content to serve the WWE fanbase. Today, the channel combines in-ring action highlights from Monday Night Raw, Friday Night SmackDown, NXT and premium live events, archival premium live event footage, exclusive interviews and content featuring WWE Superstars, weekly episodes of The Bump, post-event press conferences, and more.
WWE attributes much of its success on the platform to original programming created specifically for YouTube – such as WWE Playback where Superstars rewatch classic matches, WWE Now, a news series covering all things WWE, and highlight compilations like WWE Top 10 and WWE Playlist.
Meanwhile WWE has announced drinks brand Prime as its exclusive ‘Official Hydration Drink Partner’ and the first partner to ever appear on the centre of a WWE ring.
Going forward, Prime Hydration will earn key brand placement within WWE events including WrestleMania XL and Survivor Series, match sponsorships, co-presenter designations at future PLEs, product activations at live events, social support from WWE Superstars across retail and digital activations, and more. Additionally, Prime will be the first official partner to activate across both TKO companies. In January 2023, UFC struck an exclusive global partnership with Prime Hydration that features a number of branded integrations and entitlements, including the Official Hydration Drink of UFC and Official Partner of the UFC Performance Institute. Earlier this year, TKO brought together the global partnerships teams at UFC and WWE to form a singular global partnerships unit with a unified sponsorship strategy.
Prime was founded by current WWE US Champion Logan Paul and internet personallity. KSI. Paul commented: “Combining two of my greatest achievements into one knockout partnership is a dream come true. We’ve worked incredibly hard at Prime to build a brand that disrupts the beverage industry and it’s time to join forces with the global leader in sports entertainment. Thank you to everyone on both sides who have played an important role in bringing Prime Hydration to the ring.”