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After strong ratings in its debut last year, the UFL struggled to keep its momentum in its second regular season, which concluded Sunday.
The league’s second season, following a merger with the XFL and USFL saw viewership decline by 20% with an average of just 645,000 viewers per game across Fox and ESPN-affiliated networks. ESPN platforms averaged just 651,000, a network spokesperson told Front Office Sports.
The news was first reported by Sports Business Journal. The figure was down from an average of 812,000 viewers in 2024, with multiple games passing 1 million viewers.
The UFL’s season started with its off-field drama as tense labor negotiations led the league’s quarterbacks to skip a preseason workout and had players contemplating a strike before a new collective bargaining agreement was reached. The CBA, which runs through the 2026 season, increased player salaries and improved healthcare coverage.
This season, only five of the league’s 40 regular season games averaged an audience of more than 900,000 viewers. A regular season game between the Houston Roughnecks and D.C. Defenders was the UFL’s most-watched contest with 1.35 million. The game followed the Indianapolis 500, which helped its viewership. Six games had more than a million views.
Fox aired the UFL in a Friday night slot held by WWE before its move to Netflix. None of the league’s Friday broadcasts topped 700,000 viewers.
Attendance also dropped everywhere except for Michigan.
The UFL is the latest attempt to establish a spring football league after the short-lived Alliance of American Football folded in 2019. Fox owns half the league while wrestler turned actor Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and his ex-wife Dany Garcia, are co-owners along with Redbird Capital Partners.
The UFL playoffs start this weekend, with the championship game scheduled for June 14.
Editors’ note: RedBird IMI, of which RedBird Capital Partners is a joint venture partner, is the majority owner of Front Office Sports.
