The opening weekend for the XFL saw the league well-received with four games airing over the course of Saturday and Sunday.
ESPN has released the first set of numbers for Saturday’s game on ABC between the DC Defenders and Seattle Dragons. The game averaged 3.3 million viewers and peaked with four million near the end of the game between 4:45-5 pm Eastern.
The top markets were Seattle-Tacoma with a 6.4, Cleveland at a 4.6, Columbia with a 4.5, Kansas City at a 4.3, and Washington, D.C. at a 4.0.
Most have made the comparison to last year’s opening weekend for the Alliance of American Football. Their inaugural game aired in primetime in CBS and averaged 2.9 million viewers whereas the XFL’s opening game had an afternoon start.
Saturday’s games featured the Defenders defeating the Dragons 31-19, and the Houston Roughnecks topping the L.A. Wildcats 37-17. On Sunday, the New York Guardians defeated the Tampa Bay Vipers 23-3, and the St. Louis Battlehawks beat the Dallas Renegades 15-9.
The season will feature games airing on ABC, ESPN, Fox, and FS 1.
Nice, I thought the first game on ABC was the most entertaining out of all the games this week! The crowd in DC was also pretty loud and engaged throughout that game. It had a big game feel that the AAF didn’t have. It will be interesting to see if they can maintain any momentum or how Sunday’s blowout game on FOX did as that game wasn’t the most entertaining. The buzz on social media seems to be really positive so far, but it also was pretty positive for the AAF after Week 1 if I remember correctly.
I enjoyed the games, they moved by so fast that I didn’t feel like I was wasting most of my day by watching from start to finish. Normally with an NFL game I’ll start it late or I’ll come back here and there. My favorite was the St. Louis/Dallas game, mostly due to Pat McAfee being entertaining throughout.