Raw Rating: The Gauntlet match changes the viewership trends, key hourly metrics, 2018 average, and year-ago comparisons

This week’s episode of Monday Night Raw on USA Network drew a 2.21 rating, higher than the previous two weeks and above the ten week rolling average headed into this week of 2.13.

With the special gauntlet match filling the vast majority of the first two hours, the hourly ratings are more interesting than usual. The first hour viewership averaged 3.518 million, the second hour drew 3.509 million, and the third hour 2.821 million viewers. Dating back to the beginning of October 2017, the average dropoff from hour one to hour two has been 153,000 and this week the dropoff was just 9,000. That’s a dramatic change from usual. The average dropoff so far this year from the first to the second hour has been a more modest 119,000, but this week’s dropoff is still a small fraction of the usual. That’s a sign that fans were drawn into the Gauntlet match and more than usual stuck around for the full second hour to watch it play out.

The dropoff between the first and third hour, though, was great than usual. WWE didn’t put a lot of time and effort into building anticipation for the women’s main event three-on-three match and they paid a price, with a dropoff of 697,000 between the first and third hour compared to an average so far this year of 507,000.

The February average so far is 2.16, down from the January average of 2.29, but well above the 1.88 average in December.

This week’s rating tied the year-ago rating of a 2.21. It’s the third time this year the rating beat the year-ago rating, the other two being for Raw 25 and the Raw the day after the Royal Rumble and Ronda Rousey’s debut.