Friday night’s July 18 episode of WWE SmackDown saw a significant increase in viewership, averaging 1.546 million viewers on the USA Network. This represents a 10.5% jump from the previous week and marks the largest audience for the show since the post-WrestleMania 41 episode on April 25.
In the key 18-49 demographic, SmackDown averaged a 0.45 rating. That is up 21.6% from last week and was also the highest rating the show has done in that category since the April 25 episode.
The show topped all television on Friday night in the key demo, outperforming the WNBA Skills Competition on ESPN, which ran head-to-head and scored a 0.31 rating. In terms of total viewers for the night, SmackDown placed ninth in prime time.
Compared to the same week in 2024, when the show aired on Fox, the overall viewership was down 33.2%, while the 18-49 rating was down 30.8%. This week’s show was up 11.4% in overall viewers and 21.6% in the 18-49 demo compared to the recent 10-week average.
Over the 11-week period from May 9 to July 18, 2025, viewership for WWE SmackDown fluctuated, with the July 18 episode reaching a high of 1,546,000 viewers and a 0.45 rating in the 18-49 demographic. The low point during this time was the July 4 episode, which drew 1,166,000 viewers and a 0.32 demo rating. The 10-week average for the show stood at 1,387,500 total viewers with a 0.37 rating in the key demographic.
