While you may not notice it, the World Wresting Entertainment, Inc., (WWE) has grown tremendously. Being a publicly traded company, it has overstepped financial projections and valuations normally associated with leagues such as the NFL and Major League Baseball. Their July quarterly revenue report, for instance, shows a 32% increase in revenue to a record of $199 million. 13% excludes the timing impact that WrestleMania 1 had on the Network. WWEs Live Event and Network were key elements behind this growth. Both segments reached their highest quarterly revenue in the history of the company. Most importantly, the 2nd quarter 2016 saw an average of 1.52 million paid WWE Network subscribers. This is not only a record but also represents a 25% growth from the 2nd quarter 2015.
So What’s Behind This Growth?

SummerSlam is without doubt behind this increase in revenue. With close to 720,000 tweets on Sunday when the event took place, it’s hugely popular on social media as well. 65% of these tweets came from users in the U.S. WWE is also popular on pay-per view broadcast networks in the U.S. The day after SummerSlam, for instance, WWE Monday Night RAW led the charts posting a 1.3 rating in the 18-49 demo. This just shows that World Wresting Entertainment, Inc., has a multitude of fans. Even the most popular content on Forbes talks about WWE.

To an extent, WWE is not all fabricated entertainment. Those who participate in the ring every week are indeed real athletes who sustain real injuries. But while you may place bets on the outcomes of some WWE matches, you may not always be on the wining side. This is because it’s all about entertainment and most results of matches are already predetermined.

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