WWE News: Breakdown of Ages of WWE Audience Illustrates Interesting Trend

When you think of a typical WWE fan, chances are that a certain image comes to mind. 

Maybe you picture an eight-year-old kid decked out in John Cena gear from head to toe, or perhaps you see a middle-aged man with a replica world heavyweight championship on one shoulder and a WWE title draped around the other. 

Realistically, the WWE Universe—wow, I hate that term—features a wide variety of fans, from the very young to the very old. However, which age group makes up the largest portion of WWE fans? 

You might be surprised by the answer to that question. 

From the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (via WrestleNewz.com): 

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The current WWE audience by age looks like this – 22% is between the ages of 2-17, 23% is between the ages of 18-34, 26% is between the ages of 35-49 and 30% is age 50 or older. 

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I don’t know about you, but those results are actually pretty shocking to me. 

There’s a very noticeable trend here, and it’s that interest in the WWE product seems to go up as people get older. While there are a number of possible reasons for this, it’s not at all what I expected to see. 

With the WWE having moved away from the TV-14 rating and transitioned to the PG era, it seems like older fans (ages 50 and above) wouldn’t make up the largest percent of the WWE’s viewing audience. Yet, they surprisingly do. 

Considering that the WWE has largely stayed away from cursing and risqué storylines over the past several years, I thought that would turn older viewers off and appeal more to a younger demographic. 

However, kids aged 2-17 don’t seem to be tuning-in for whatever reason. What is perhaps even more alarming, though, is the fact that the 18-34 demographic—often the WWE's target audience—makes up the second lowest percentage of the their viewing audience. 

That’s the key demographic that the company needs to worry about. When it loses fans at that time, it generally loses them for good. 

Since neither young children nor the 18-34 demographic are tuning-in in high numbers, maybe it’s time for a change in the WWE. 

Let the debate about whether or not the WWE should go back to the TV-14 rating begin.

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