Nielsen Highlights Women's Sports Viewership Milestones Ahead of International Women's Day on March 8
New York March 5, 2026 According to Nielsen's proprietary data, 46 billion minutes* of women's sports were consumed in the U.S. in 2025. Nielsen's new data is revealed in celebration of International Women's Day on March 8, along with a compilation of high-profile viewership milestones for U.S. women's sports in the past year.
More information on the rise of women's sports viewership and fandom can be found in Nielsen's recently released Top of Sports report.
There is a long history of incredible achievements of women athletes on the field of play and now they are being celebrated and watched by more people than ever, noted Charlene Polite Corley, Vice President, Inclusive Insights, Nielsen. With Nielsen's continuing improvement for measuring live sports, streaming and capturing out of home viewing, we are better able to measure these landmark levels of engagement.
The 2026 Milan Winter Olympics women's hockey gold-medal game between the USA and Canada set a viewership record, averaging 5.3 million viewers across USA Network and Peacock. The thrilling 2-1 overtime victory peaked at 7.7 million viewers during the final minutes. This midday broadcast became the most-watched women's hockey game in history.
Led by Alysa Liu's gold-medal winning performance in the figure skating free skate, and the U.S. Women's Hockey Team's 2-1 overtime victory over Canada in the gold-medal game, NBCUniversal yesterday delivered the most-watched Winter Olympics weekday coverage since Feb. 17, 2014, averaging 26.7 million viewers
The 2025 WNBA season achieved record-breaking viewership, with ESPN networks delivering their most-watched WNBA regular season and postseason ever, averaging 1.3M viewers across 25 regular-season games (up 6% YoY) and 1.2M across 24 postseason games (up 5% YoY), per Nielsen Big Data + Panel. The Full Season across All National Networks was consumed for 220.12 million hours, making it the most-consumed Full Season ever (up 16% YOY).
NCAA women's basketball TV ratings in 2024-2025 continued to show strong growth, averaging 280,000 viewers across ESPN networks for the regular season, the highest since 2008-2009, with multiple games exceeding 1 million viewers. The 2025 tournament was the third-most watched on record.
ESPN's coverage of the 2025 NCAA Women's College World Series (WCWS) achieved record-breaking TV ratings, with the Finals averaging 2.2 million viewers and Game 3 peaking at 2.4 million, making it the most-watched NCAA softball game in history.
ESPN's coverage of the NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament finished up 13% year over year, averaging 666,000 viewers across the 15 matches
ESPN's coverage of the 2025 Little League Softball World Series Championship Game was the most-watched on record, with 1.4 million viewers, up 66%.
Women's tennis TV audience saw a massive resurgence in 2025, with the US Open Women's Final averaging 2.4 million viewers on ESPN, a 50% increase over 2024. The 2025 Wimbledon Ladies' Semifinals were the most viewed in a decade averaging 897K viewers, an increase of 31% vs. 2024, with American No. 13 Anisimova defeating No. 1 Sabalenka and No. 8 Swiatek's victory over Bencic.
The 2025 National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) on ESPN season delivered record-breaking growth across ESPN platforms, scoring a 61 percent increase in average viewership for the regular season (228,000 viewers to 141,000 viewers), according to Nielsen Big Data + Panel.
The 2025 NWSL Championship between Gotham FC and the Washington Spirit on CBS averaged a record-breaking 1.18 million viewers, the first in NWSL league history to surpass one million, peaking at 1.55 million. This marked a 22% increase over the 2024 final and a 45% increase over 2023, with a 70% rise in viewers aged 18-34. In addition, Total viewership across Nielsen-rated platforms in 2025 reached 20,162,000, representing an 18% increase from the 2024 season.
In 2026, for the first time in league history, every single LPGA Tour event and coverage of every round will be live across the country.
*Women's basketball (College & Pro), LPGA, Grand Slam Tennis, Softball (College & Pro), Volleyball (College & Pro), NWSL and international women's soccer.
About Nielsen Nielsen is a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics. Through our understanding of people and their behaviors across all channels and platforms, we empower our clients with independent and actionable intelligence so they can connect and engage with their global audiences-now and into the future. Learn more at www.nielsen.com and connect with us on social media (X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram).
Press Contacts David Schwarz, Nielsen Communications
David.Schwarz@nielsen.com
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Nielsen Highlights Women's Sports Viewership Milestones Ahead of International Women's Day on March 8
