2021 The Most-Viewed, Highest-Grossing 'SummerSlam' Ever

It was a successful weekend for World Wrestling Entertainment, which put on their biggest show in recent memory with the 34th annual ‘SummerSlam’ in Las Vegas at the home of the Las Vegas Raiders.

The event had its share of surprises that seemed to satisfy fans, especially the return of ‘The Beast’ Brock Lesnar, who came out following the main event victory of WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns over John Cena.

On Tuesday, WWE announced that the show was the most-viewed and highest-grossing 'SummerSlam' of all time.

The pay-per-view originally launched back in 1988 as a complement to other events in the summer. The very first ‘SummerSlam’ featured Hulk Hogan and Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage against Andre the Giant and ‘The Million Dollar Man,’ Ted Dibiase. Since then the event has always been something for fans to look forward to as the wrap up to summer.

The company stated Tuesday that Peacock and WWE Network had a massive audience tune into the event, as the seven-figure global audience marked a 55% increase over 2020 and a 29% increase over 2019.

In 2019 the main event for 'SummerSlam,' held in Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, featured a match between Universal Champion Lesnar and then challenger Seth Rollins.

Last year the event was held in Orlando, Florida at the Amway Center. The main event was then Universal Champ Braun Strowman defending the Universal Championship against "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt in a Falls Count Anywhere match.

Saturday evening’s event held at Allegiant Stadium drew a sellout crowd of 51,326, which broke 'SummerSlam' records for indoor attendance and gate receipts.

Another huge number announced by WWE was the amount of merchandise that fans scooped up before, during and after the event. Overall merchandise sales increased 155% over 2019.

The WWE says that Lesnar’s return to the ring to challenge Reigns was the WWE’s most-watched Instagram video of all-time.

Videos surrounding ‘SummerSlam’ generated more than a billion views across the WWE social platforms during the week.

With more than four million views, Brock Lesnar’s return became WWE’s most-watched Instagram video of all time – surpassing the video of John Cena’s return at WWE Money in the Bank.

In total, 'SummerSlam' videos generated more than one billion views across all WWE social platforms during the lead up to the show last week.