The 2025 NWSL Championship claimed a major viewership milestone on Saturday, as Gotham FC's 1-0 title win over the Washington Spirit became the first-ever league match to record an average of more than one million viewers.
The CBS evening broadcast averaged an impressive 1.184 million fans and peaked at 1.55 million viewers, making it the most-watched NWSL match of all time.
The 2025 final marked a 22% viewership increase over the 967,900 fans who watched 2024's Orlando Pride victory — the previous NWSL viewership record-holder — and a 45% ratings gain over Gotham's 2023 championship win, which averaged 816,800 viewers.
Saturday's gains both matched the 22% viewership increase the NWSL regular season saw this year and also far exceeded the 2025 postseason's pre-final year-over-year increase of 5%.
Calling the one-million viewer mark "an extraordinary achievement" in Tuesday's league statement, NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman also noted that the "record-setting audience demonstrates the deepening connection fans have with our players, our clubs, and the world-class competition on the field, and it underscores the growing demand for women's soccer on the biggest stages."
"We're incredibly proud of what this moment represents for the NWSL and for everyone who continues to invest in and believe in the future of our game," Berman added.
Despite a slight dip in attendance, the NWSL has continued to see steady gains from its TV audience this year, posting a league-wide 22% viewership growth during the 2025 regular season.
Prior to last Saturday's title game, the NWSL reported that postseason viewership had risen 5% from the 2024 Playoffs, when the Orlando Pride completed a league-double Shield and championship win.
Even more, ABC and ESPN platforms saw their largest percentage hike for NWSL regular-season matches in history, with the audience growing an impressive 61% year-over-year — though CBS still touts the league's highest viewership average at 479,000 fans tuning in per 2025 match.
Three of ABC/ESPN's top matchups featured the Washington Spirit, with the Portland Thorns also making two appearances in the Top-5 most-watched games of the 2025 season on the platform.
Additionally, CBS's 2025 semifinal between Washington and Portland drew 548,000 viewers while the other NWSL semifinal between Orlando and reigning champs Gotham FC averaged 328,000 viewers on ABC.
Broadcast partner ION, which carries the most linear games each NWSL season, also claimed a 5% increase in overall viewership from 2024.
Ultimately, the NWSL remains competitive with other North American soccer leagues in finding an audience on TV, with the league now aiming to retain its star power in order to encourage even more growth.
The broadcast reach of Athletes Unlimited got even stronger this week, as the pro women's sports organization scored a blockbuster media rights extension with ESPN on Wednesday, ensuring three more years of basketball, volleyball, and softball coverage.
"The growth we've seen across Athletes Unlimited's leagues speaks to the power and appeal of women's sports," said ESPN EVP of programming and acquisitions Rosalyn Durant. "We're excited to deepen our partnership and bring even more of these moments and athletes to fans everywhere."
As part of the extended partnership, ESPN will exclusively air 50 Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) games annually, including 47 regular-season matchups and the AUSL Championship Series, with the company's titan channel ABC also committed to airing the first-ever pro softball game on network television.
The broadcast giant already has a vested interest in softball's future, with the most recent Women's College World Series Finals delivering a record-high 2.2 million viewers across ESPN networks last June.
AU's basketball and volleyball footprints are also growing, with all 24 games from each competition's season now set to air live each year.
"This renewed and expanded partnership affirms the strength of our properties and reflects the growing enthusiasm for women's professional sports," said AU chief broadcast officer Cheri Kempf.
The Tour de France Femmes confirmed its course for 2026 this week, setting up next year's event as the longest iteration of the race in the women's tour history.
The 2026 course will run in nine stages starting in Lausanne, Switzerland, on August 1st and continuing through the finish line in Nice, France, on August 9th.
Cyclists will cover a total of 1,175 kilometers, with 18,795 meters of climbing.
The course will feature three flat stages and three hilly stages as well as two mountain stages and one individual time trial, with riders tackling Mont Ventoux — an iconic climb from the men's event — for the first time.
Though 2026 will only by the fifth edition of the modern Tour de France Femmes, the race will make its debut in a standalone time slot one full week after the men’s race ends, with recent record viewership fueling the move to separate the races rather than continue the previous tactic of scheduling the two events back-to-back.
"We no longer need men for the Tour de France Femmes to exist," said race director Marion Rousse at Thursday's course unveiling. "There's no need to have the men's race as a platform to launch the women's race. Now people are waiting to see us."
"People have embraced us," Rousse continued. "The new dates, separate to the men, prove it."
The WNBA blew past viewership records throughout its 2025 campaign, ESPN reported this week, with the league delivering the network's most-watched season in history.
ESPN averaged 1.3 million viewers through 25 regular-season games, accounting for a 6% year-over-year increase, with the full season's 49 broadcasts averaging 1.2 million viewers per game — up 5% over last year's lineup.
Postseason coverage was especially popular, with the Las Vegas Aces' championship-winning series sweep averaging 1.5 million viewers per game to become the second-most watched WNBA Finals behind the 2024 edition.
The gains also hit the ESPN studio, with the network's WNBA Countdown averaging 437,000 viewers through the 2025 Playoffs — up 30% over last season — while Hoop Streams and The Wrap-Up saw a 60% year-over-year viewership growth across eight postseason episodes.
Overall, the numbers punctuate the stability of the WNBA, with viewership continuing to rise despite superstars like Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier, and Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese all missing screen time due to injury this year.
The dividends, as well, are already paying off, as the WNBA embarks on a new $2.2 billion media deal promising at least $200 million per year in returns through the 11-year contract.
With the league currently wading through contentious CBA negotiations, this year's soaring ratings seemingly back the WNBA Players Association's arguments for increased investment and revenue sharing.
The 2025 WNBA Finals tipped off with a bang last week, with Friday's Game 1 averaging 1.9 million viewers on ESPN to become the most-watched championship opener since 1997.
The Friday matchup between the No. 2 seed Las Vegas Aces and the No. 4 Phoenix Mercury peaked at 2.5 million viewers, a 62% increase over the 2024 Finals opener between the Minnesota Lynx and eventual champion New York Liberty.
That Game 1 viewership ranked second only to the inaugural WNBA season championship 28 years ago — a single-elimination title game in which 2.8 million fans watched the Houston Comets take down the New York Liberty on NBC.
Game 2 continued the record breaking, with Sunday's broadcast averaging 1.2 million viewers on ABC.
With an average of 1.5 million fans tuning in, the first two 2025 WNBA Finals games boast the best viewership numbers in 25 years, nearly matching the 1.54 million average claimed by the opening two clashes between the New York Liberty and Houston Comets on NBC and Lifetime in 2000.
The record-breaking ratings underscore significant viewership growth across the WNBA postseason, with Game 1 Finals ratings increasing by nearly 700% since 2019 while this year's average postseason viewership is already up 16% over 2024.
The WNBA is coming to USA Network, as the league finalized a new 11-year media deal with NBC Universal sub-conglomerate Versant this week, expanding national coverage ahead of the 2026 season.
Running through the 2036 campaign, the deal allows USA Network to air at least 50 WNBA games per season, as the league's schedule continues to expand in the wake of incoming expansion teams.
Featured programming will include "marquee Wednesday night doubleheaders" as well as shared rights to the WNBA Playoffs and Finals, with the channel also providing its own pre- and post-game studio programming for each game.
While the parties did not reveal the additional value of this week's deal, the new agreement takes advantage of the league's exponentially increasing TV ratings by building on the original landmark 2024 WNBA media rights contract — an 11-year agreement valued at $2.2 billion that kicked in with the 2025 season.
"As demand for women's basketball continues to rise, partnerships like this expand the visibility and accessibility of our game," said WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert in Tuesday's press release. "By establishing a weekly primetime destination for fans, this agreement will showcase the excitement of the WNBA to more households than ever before and further elevate the incredible athletes in this league."
The NWSL is expanding its footprint across ESPN, with the broadcaster signing on to carry 16 additional regular-season games in both the 2026 and 2027 seasons, upping the platform's total to 33 matches per year.
ESPN will also introduce a season-long "Match of the Week" centerpiece series, as well as live coverage of NWSL Decision Day, when eight concurrent matches will close out the season on the same day.
"The NWSL showcases some of the best athletes in the world," ESPN EVP of programming and acquisitions Rosalyn Durant said in a press release. "We are proud to increase our commitment on ABC and ESPN, and to further elevate women's sports and the athlete stories."
This media rights extension builds on the league's ongoing blockbuster four-year, $240 million TV deal with ESPN, adding inventory for the final two seasons of the November 2023 agreement.
The deal expansion comes in light of the league's significant growth this season, with the NWSL seeing gains across both attendance and viewership, including a 72% year-over-year ratings rise on ESPN.
"This supplemental agreement underscores the growing demand for women's soccer and ensures our players and clubs receive the visibility they deserve on some of the most prominent sports platforms," said NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman in a statement.
Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark is feeling the pressure, joining retired WNBA legend Sue Bird on last Friday's podcast to discuss the impact of her recent spat of injuries on league attendance and viewership.
"That's definitely been hard," Clark told Bird about having to ride the bench. "I'm going to go to every road game no matter what, whether I'm playing or not. It's hard because obviously I do feel this responsibility of being out there and playing."
"I sign autographs for way longer when I'm hurt than when I'm active," Clark told Bird, referencing her outsized popularity. "That's never something I wish for, but I still want to make as much time as I can for people."
In total, Clark has missed 19 of the No. 5 Fever's 32 regular-season games — plus this year's Indianapolis-based All-Star Game — as she manages three separate muscle injuries.
Before her injuries, Indiana's 2025 season opener pit Clark against fellow WNBA sophomore Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky earned what is still this year's highest viewership, with 2.7 million people tuning in on May 17th.
Since then, all three rematches have seen the regional rivals face off without one or both of their popular 2024 draft picks.
Despite star absences, however, ratings are up across all WNBA teams, with national networks averaging 794,000 viewers per game through July — a 21% increase over 2024's full-season average.
The 2025 Tour de France Femmes came in hot, as Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt crossed the finish line to become the race’s first French winner in 36 years — all in front of a record audience.
Cyclist Jeannie Longo was the most recent Frenchwoman to win the race back in 1989, though then it called the Tour de France Feminin. No French athletes has won the men's Tour de France since 1985 champion Bernard Hinault.
This year's Tour de France Femmes drew a total of 25.7 million French viewers across linear and digital platforms, up 33.6% from 2024 to make this year’s edition the most-watched in event history.
An average of 4.4 million French viewers tuned in on Sunday to see Ferrand-Prévôt clinch the yellow jersey in the final stage of the race.
After picking up a gold medal at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, Ferrand-Prévot also became the first woman to win the Tour and the Paris-Roubaix cycling race in the same calendar year.
"I came back on the road after my Olympic title and I said I will try to win the Tour de France in the next three years," said Ferrand-Prevot after Sunday's finish.
"My teammates worked super hard for me all week long. I just want to say thank you and congrats to them, to my entire team."
The Tour de France Femmes was resurrected in 2022 after a 33-year suspension, with interest in the women’s cycling event soaring ever since.