The XFL, the American football league, made an underwhelming return in terms of viewership last weekend as it suffered a significant drop from its previous edition in 2020.

According to Sports Media Watch, the four games aired on major sports broadcaster ESPN and sister network ABC had a decrease in viewership of at least 50% from three years ago, when the XFL returned for a season that ultimately was cut short due to the pandemic.

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The first game between the Vegas Vipers and Arlington Renegades on ABC had 1.54 million viewers, which reflected a 54% drop over the 3.3 million who tuned in for the first game on ABC in February 2020.

The numbers were also lower than the United States Football League (USFL) debut in 2022 (3.07 million) and the Alliance of American Football (AAF) in 2019 (3.25 million). However, those games were played in primetime slots and not in the afternoon.

The other game on ABC, St. Louis Battlehawks vs. San Antonio Brahmas, averaged 1.57 million viewers, a 54% decrease from the same window in 2020. The night games on ESPN and FX drew 1.14 million on Saturday and 918,000 on Sunday.

In its previous iteration in 2020, the XFL didn’t have any viewership below a million until the fifth week.

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The eight-team XFL is being broadcast domestically across the ABC, ESPN, and FX networks through a four-year rights deal with parent company Disney.

The was relaunched after it was bought by a group including US investment firm Redbird Capital Partners, Dwayne Johnson, and Dany Garcia in 2020. The $15-million deal included all the intellectual property such as team names and colors.

It was first relaunched by WWE majority owner Vince McMahon in February 2020 – 19 years after its first and only other season in 2001 – but was suspended five weeks into its 10-week season due to the coronavirus and filed for bankruptcy.

Image: Ronald Cortes/Getty Images