USFL regular season audience finishes 3% below XFL

The USFL’s regular-season TV viewership finished 3% lower than what the XFL drew earlier this spring, and 16% lower than what the Fox-owned league drew for its debut effort in 2022, reports my colleague Austin Karp.

USFL games across Fox, FS1, NBC and USA averaged 601,000 viewers for 40 telecast this season, which began in mid-April. The same number of games for the XFL relaunch from February through late April on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and FX averaged 622,000 viewers. While a 3% gap may not be material on its face, XFL brass considers this a clear head-to-head win considering the USFL had more favorable distribution (i.e. More games on broadcast TV networks).

The USFL was well below its figure of 715,000 viewers in 2022, which had the benefit of intrigue with the league’s debut.

NBC and Fox will air the USFL semifinals on Saturday and Sunday in prime time, respectively. NBC airs the championship game on July 1 in prime time.