Nielsen’s ‘Big Data’ Method Caused Major Drop in Wrestling Ratings

TLDR

Nielsen's "Big Data" tabulation method, implemented since September 2025, has caused significant drops in wrestling ratings across major promotions, with NXT declining 30 percent in the 18-49 demographic and SmackDown and AEW Dynamite dropping over 20 percent. The CW Network publicly expressed frustration with Nielsen over the "inexplicable" discrepancies in WWE NXT viewership data, calling the results lacking in credibility. Nielsen began using data from the ARF DASH study as of January 26 to address the issues, which boosted numbers for viewers over 50 but did little to fix the declining 18-49 ratings that drive advertising revenue.