We often report WWE's Youtube highs and lows here on Fightful.com. It's an excellent gauge to see what segments viewers went out of their way to take in. This weekend's Royal Rumble brought about an interesting talking point.
At press time Ronda Rousey and Rey Mysterio did incredible numbers for their appearances at the Royal Rumble on Youtube. Generally pay-per-view events don't draw as many views, but Rousey landed at 2.3M, while Mysterio clocked in at an insane 6.7 million. His post-match interview also garnered 1.2 million. The discrepancy was later used by many detractors as an indication that her acquisition had or would fall flat.
Unfortunately for them, these numbers don't tell the entire story.
WWE sent the clip of Ronda Rousey for republication on several major outlets. ESPN and others were supplied with the video to post on their own, which don't contribute to published numbers as it relates to WWE's Youtube. This is important because typically WWE doesn't do that for Raw or Smackdown, making it far easier to take a look at what was the top drawing segmnet.
In addition, WWE ran the clip on their Facebook -- while they didn't for Mysterio's Rumble appearence itself. Across their multiple platforms there, another 2.7 million were added. On Twitter, Rousey's debut was at 512k views for WWE's official account, while Rey's beat it out at 654k
Nothing can be taken away from Mysterio's numbers -- 6.7 million is gigantic, and the shape he showed up in (maybe the best since WCW), as well as his excellent performance and pedigree likely contributed to that. Comparing the digital footprint of the two based on WWE's Youtube numbers isn't exactly fair given the viral nature of the event itself and particularly the Rousey debut. Had WWE sent Mysterio's clip across mainstream stations, it likely wouldn't have been picked up as much. In all, the mainstream coverage received for Rousey's appearance likely significantly distorted the clip's performance on Youtube. Unfortunately, there's little transparency as it relates to those numbers.
