Airing in primetime on CBS, the match — a 1-0 win for Gotham FC over the Washington Spirit in front of a sellout crowd of 18,000 at PayPal Park in San Jose, Calif. — delivered an average of 1.184 million viewers, a new high for any NWSL game airing on TV.
That represents a 22 percent increase over the 2024 title game, which set the previous record for the most-watched NWSL game. Younger audiences tuned in at astonishing rates, with a 70 percent increase in viewers aged 18-34 over the 2024 title game.
“Surpassing one million viewers for the 2025 NWSL Championship is an extraordinary achievement and a powerful reflection of the momentum behind our league and our product,” NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said.
Beyond the living room couch, phone screen and sports bar, in-stadium attendance for the NWSL playoffs also surged, with a league-record-setting 114,459 fans attending seven playoff games, an 11 percent increase over 2024.
The league is completing the second year of a transformative $240 million media rights deal signed in 2023, which has brought an increase to the number of networks — including ESPN, CBS Sports, Amazon Prime Video and Scripps Sports, which owns ION Network — and the number of games being aired nationally. The league’s previous media deal was with CBS, worth $4.5 million.
The league is going through an era of dramatic growth, including franchise expansion, competition for its star power from rival leagues domestically and abroad, and investors around the league aggressively pursuing “multi-club” models. Berman touched on these and other significant topics during her state-of-the-league news conference last week.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Gotham FC, Washington Spirit, NWSL, Sports Business
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