After a couple of years of record profits and sell-out arenas, warning signs are starting to pop up that WWE’s incredible boom period may be running out of steam. Recent numbers from several wrestling business trackers show that advance ticket sales for some upcoming live events have really started to tank compared to earlier in the year — a trend that’s causing a lot of debate about whether the company’s strategy of charging top dollar for tickets is starting to bite back with fan demand.
According to figures being cited by WrestleTix, only around 1,400 tickets had been sold for the Dec 19 SmackDown taping in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a shade under 40 days before the event. That’s a huge drop from the 8,900 tickets sold for a similar SmackDown in the same venue back in June.
Similar trends were noted for other non-televised shows, such as the November 1 Saturday Night’s Main Event in Salt Lake City, which drew fewer than 8,000 attendees despite a strong local marketing push. It’s said that WWE is even starting to reconfigure the seating in arenas so that they appear to be more full than they really are — this is essentially closing off some of the higher-up seating areas, making it look like the crowd is bigger than it actually is.
WWE numbers are looking seriously bad
Industry analysts agree that one major reason for this is price inflation. Since WWE joined forces with TKO, the average ticket price for domestic shows has reportedly gone up by nearly 50% from around $75 in 2024 to more than $115 in 2025. While this has certainly helped drive earnings to new heights, it’s also made fans angry and much more picky about which shows they spend their cash on.
It’s not that the audience has vanished, noted a wrestling business analyst who was interviewed by Wrestlenomics. They’re just waiting around a bit longer, looking out for cheaper deals or skipping the smaller towns.
Despite the slowdown in early ticket sales, WWE’s overall live event business is still doing just fine. They’re still managing to draw in 11,000 to 12,000 fans on average for Raw and Smackdown, & their premium live events (like WrestleMania, SummerSlam & Crown Jewel) are still selling out within minutes.
WWE President Nick Khan has defended their higher pricing strategy, saying it’s a “ticket-scarcity strategy” which is designed to keep fans thinking the tickets are super valuable and don’t want to miss out.
Still, fan sentiment online is telling a different story. Social media posts and wrestling forums are full of complaints about how expensive the tickets are, the added service charges, and the limited seating options. Some fans are saying they’re just going to wait for last-minute discounts — which naturally means they’re not going to buy tickets in advance.
One recent TalkSport report called it a “400 million dollar boom masking a fan revolt” — it seems like the company’s success might actually be causing the very fatigue they’re trying to avoid.
