Women’s sports ratings continue to climb, with Sunday’s softball game between UCLA and Florida State on ESPN bringing in an average of 620,000 viewers, according to ESPN PR.
🥎 College softball viewership update 🥎The final game of the 2022 @SPCEliteInvite between @UCLASoftball & @FSU_Softball averaged 620K viewersThe most-viewed regular season college softball game since 2015#NCAASoftball pic.twitter.com/WWLmy4FcEt— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) February 24, 2022
🥎 College softball viewership update 🥎The final game of the 2022 @SPCEliteInvite between @UCLASoftball & @FSU_Softball averaged 620K viewersThe most-viewed regular season college softball game since 2015#NCAASoftball pic.twitter.com/WWLmy4FcEt
It’s the most-viewed regular season college softball game since 2015.
The game was a part of ESPN’s unprecedented weekend of women’s sports, which also saw a game between South Carolina and Tennessee post the highest regular season viewership for women’s college basketball since 2017.
NCAA softball viewership has been on the rise since last year’s WCWS. The 2021 WCWS was the most-watched on record, recording higher viewership than the men’s baseball tournament with an average audience of 1.2 million.
In response, ESPN has promised unprecedented softball coverage, including a new game-of-the-week series called “Thursday Night Throwdown” that will air for four weeks from mid-April through early-May on ESPN2.