Monday Night Raw viewership increased for the go-home Elimination Chamber episode.
According to Showbuzz Daily (h/t Marc Middleton of WrestlingInc.com), this week's show averaged 1.810 million viewers on USA Network. The show peaked in the first hour with 1.935 million viewers.
This is a considerable increase from last week's show that had 1.715 million viewers, which marked the lowest Raw viewership of 2021 so far.
Although the numbers increased this week, the last two episodes of Raw drew lower viewership than the first five shows of 2021. Every episode from Jan. 4 to to Feb. 1 drew at least 1.819 million viewers, per WrestlingInc.com's viewership tracker.
The "Legends Night" special on Jan. 4 stands as the most-watched Raw program of 2021 so far. That show averaged 2.128 million viewers.
This week's show was highlighted by a gauntlet match between WWE Champion Drew McIntyre, Sheamus, Kofi Kingston, Randy Orton, Jeff Hardy and AJ Styles. Sheamus won the bout, earning himself the pivotal No. 6 entry in Sunday's Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship.
The Raw ratings haven't been consistent by any means in 2021, but the good news is that they haven't come anywhere close to the numbers for the Dec. 14 show.
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That episode had just 1.527 million viewers, which marked the lowest viewership in the show's history. Following the Dec. 14 episode, Raw ratings increased in three consecutive weeks.
While Raw continues to hover around the 1.8 to 1.9 million marks, SmackDown Live is consistently reaching over two million viewers, though they fell just below that number last week.
Lots Of Work To Do
The Raw ratings have dropped mightily over the past four years. The show averaged over three million viewers in 2017, and here in 2021, they're struggling to get to the two million mark. Vince McMahon has made several changes to try and fix the viewership, even bringing in Bruce Prichard to run Raw. There's plenty of work ahead for McMahon and company, to say the very least.