That above play right there was more than enough to go viral on social media and garner a ton of more people to tune in and watch the new upstart league in a country that absolutely loves the sport of football.
For the inaugural game, the Alliance of American Football averaged 2.913 million viewers between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Eastern. To put that into perspective, the NBA game on ABC drew 2.524 million viewers during that same time slot.
If you’re old enough to remember, the XFL also drew monster numbers during their opening night, but it showed not to be sustainable over the course of the season, which is why the league folded after one season.
The AAF now hopes to do what the XFL couldn’t do and that’s keep the eyes of America on their league, for not only this season, but years to come as the XFL gets ready to reboot in 2020.