Some key minute-by-minute and quarter hour details regarding AEW Dymamite’s “Winter is Coming” including peak for Sting, how Moxley-Omega drew

AEW Dynamite’s “Winter is Coming” special on Dec. 2 was built around an AEW World Title defense by Jon Moxley against Kenny Omega, but also featured a surprise appearance by Sting five minutes into the second hour. Both did well in the ratings.

It’s interesting to see what a surprise appearance, without any prior advertising, does to viewership. PWTorch has exclusively received some detailed information from a ratings source on how both key segments did in overall viewership.

The first five minutes of hour two of AEW Dynamite averaged 944,000 viewers. When Sting showed up, it leaped from 951,000 in minute five to 1,070,000 in minute six, and it stayed in that range for the next few minutes. Then it settled back to where it was prior to the Sting appearance. It closed out the first quarter hour of hour two with viewership of 905,000, 907,000, and 928,000.

So while Sting generated a surge in viewership, it didn’t sustain higher numbers of viewers beyond those few minutes he was on the air. As Sting left the stage, Jim Ross said: “The world title still on tap, the main event still to come.” (It might have been better strategically to go right from Sting leaving the stage to the Moxley promo specifically hyping the match before cutting to a break to entice some of those to stick around.)

The last 30 minutes of Dynamite featuring the Omega-Moxley match averaged 949,000 viewers, up from the last 30 minutes of hour one, which drew 907,000. The title match never topped one million viewers, though, and wasn’t all that much higher than the overall average for the show – 913,000. It peaked at 993,000 for the finish, then dropped off to 978,000 and 988,000 to close the show.

The quarter hour viewership was as follows:

• Q1: 844K
• Q2: 899K
• Q3: 940K
• Q4: 874K
• Q5: 942K
• Q6: 911K
• Q7: 952K
• Q8: 945K

As reported here first earlier today, Dynamite drew the top cable rating among viewers in the 18-49 demographic, tying a college basketball game on ESPN. It’s the first time AEW has topped the night’s key demo rating among all cable shows.

OUR PRIOR RATINGS REPORT: AEW Dynamite demo ranking update, how to watch Impact Wrestling next Tuesday, Impact viewership baseline