The Rock’s UFL Gamble Pays Off – How Viewership Skyrocketed in Its Second Season

The United Football League (UFL) is back for its second season, with the St. Louis Battlehawks set to face off against the Houston Roughnecks in Texas this Friday. As the league returns, it does so with a vindication for one of its key figures—Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson—whose confident prediction about the UFL’s future success has now been proven correct.

The UFL’s inaugural season culminated in a record-breaking moment last June, surpassing viewership expectations and validating Johnson’s bold proclamation about the league’s potential. The 2023 UFL Championship Game, which saw the San Antonio Brahmas face the Birmingham Stallions, attracted an average of 1.60 million viewers on FOX. Despite the game’s one-sided nature—where the Stallions clinched their third straight championship with a dominant 25-0 victory—the impressive viewership was a positive sign for the league.

The UFL Championship Game set a new benchmark for spring football, becoming the most-watched championship since the 2001 XFL’s ‘Million Dollar Game,’ which garnered 2.91 million viewers on NBC. In comparison, the 2023 UFL Championship saw a 38 percent boost in viewership over the previous year’s USFL title game, which drew 1.16 million viewers. Additionally, the audience was 11 percent higher than the 1.44 million viewers who tuned into the 2023 XFL Championship clash between the Arlington Renegades and the D.C. Defenders.

This growth is significant, as the UFL managed to pull in a 30 percent increase in viewership over its predecessors—the XFL and USFL—when comparing regular season numbers from 2022. With an average of 816,000 viewers during the regular season and a jump to 1.18 million viewers for the conference championship games, the league demonstrated considerable momentum in its first year.

The UFL’s promising trajectory can be attributed to the merger of the XFL and USFL, which combined their strengths to form a unified spring football league. Johnson, a central figure in the ownership consortium behind the UFL, had previously expressed his confidence about the league’s potential for success. “I think it’s going to work out, we’ve got a real shot with this now that we’ve merged XFL and USFL together to create UFL,” he said in an interview with ESPN last year.

Johnson’s connection to football is deeply personal. A former player at the University of Miami, Johnson’s college football career was cut short by a shoulder injury, preventing him from making it to the NFL. In his words, “Fifty-three men on an NFL roster, I was always number 54.” His near-miss with the NFL resonates with the players in the UFL, many of whom are striving for another shot at professional football. Johnson’s understanding of this struggle drives his commitment to providing a platform for these players to showcase their talents.

The league’s growing viewership numbers further prove that there is an appetite for spring football, and Johnson’s bold prediction for the UFL’s future is rapidly becoming a reality. As the season progresses, it’s clear that the UFL is carving out its place in the landscape of American football, and Johnson’s leadership is integral to its ongoing success. With a solid foundation and growing fanbase, the UFL appears poised for sustained success, validating Johnson’s optimism and the vision behind the league’s formation.