The UFL kicked off its first season on a busy weekend, with games televised by Fox and ESPN. Despite the lower numbers compared to the XFL’s opening weekend last year, the UFL still attracted solid audiences. According to Austin Karp of Sports Business Daily, the Saturday games on Fox had over a million viewers each. The opening game between Birmingham and Arlington drew 1.18 million viewers, while the later game between St. Louis and Michigan had 1.35 million viewers. On Sunday, the ESPN-televised games drew 960,000 viewers for D.C. at San Antonio and 703,000 viewers for Memphis at Houston.
The key question now is whether the UFL will maintain or increase its viewership numbers in the coming weeks. Karp notes that the high viewership for Week 1 of the UFL represents a 56% increase over the full-season averages of both the XFL and USFL from 2023. However, history has shown that viewership numbers tend to decline as spring football seasons progress. The USFL had lower numbers in its 2023 Week 1, with a high of 974,000 viewers, while the XFL had higher numbers in its opening weekend last year with games exceeding 1.5 million viewers each. Overall, it remains to be seen whether the UFL will be able to sustain its success in future weeks or if it will follow in the footsteps of other spring football leagues and see declining viewership numbers as time goes on.
