It's been confirmed that WWE Premium Live Events (aka PLEs, formerly known as pay-per-views) will be airing on ESPN's new streaming service starting in 2026. In 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network, its own streaming service that allowed fans to watch PPVs along with the company's massive archive of events and original programming for a mere $9.99 per month. Later media deals saw the WWE Network go away, with that content migrating to other platforms.
In more recent years, WWE fans have been able to watch events on Peacock in the US, while those elsewhere in the world can watch on Netflix. Peacock is currently $10.99 per month for the ad-based tier, but for a few years, it was even cheaper than the WWE Network. While WWE fans have certainly had their complaints about Peacock, the service still got the job done and was relatively cheap compared to some other streaming platforms out there. But that's all going to change in 2026, as WWE PLEs are moving to yet another streaming platform.
WWE 2K25: Every Brand In MyGM Mode, Ranked
MyGM mode has some great new additions this year with a new brand added to the game mode. But how does each brand rank in WWE 2K25?
WWE PLEs are Leaving Peacock for ESPN
As announced by ESPN, WWE PLEs will be exclusive to the platform in the US starting in 2026. WWE PLEs will remain on Netflix in other regions. The new ESPN streaming service, launching on August 21 and simply called ESPN, will cost $29.99 per month. So, instead of $132 per year with Peacock (worth noting that an annual subscription is actually even cheaper than paying month-to-month), consumers are going to have to shell out a staggering $360 per year to keep watching WWE PLEs in 2026. That's a $228 difference. Someone that wants to keep up with all WWE programming will have to subscribe to ESPN for $30 per month, have a Netflix subscription to watch Raw, have access to broadcast TV to watch NXT on The CW, and a cable subscription to watch SmackDown on Fridays on the USA Network. Needless to say, it's becoming almost prohibitively expensive to be a WWE fan.
WWE has also been criticized for raising ticket prices to wild extremes, effectively pricing out some dedicated fans that used to attend the shows. That controversy combined with the move to ESPN is going to ruffle some feathers, to say the least. In fact, the stock price of WWE parent company TKO took a hit in the wake of the announcement, sinking by 2.73% at the time of this writing. It's at $159.16 now, down from its $167.38 open.
It has yet to be clarified what will happen to the archive of WWE events currently available on Peacock. One would assume they would go to ESPN as well, but that remains to be seen.
Many WWE fans are likely going to be upset about this development, and understandably so. Modern-day WWE PLEs are stuffed full of ads and filler content, and that's unlikely to change with the move. Signing up for ESPN will still be cheaper than the old-school pay-per-view model, but the old-school pay-per-views were focused almost entirely on the actual product, resulting in a more consumer-friendly experience. It's definitely going to be interesting to see how this move impacts WWE moving forward.