Women’s sports will be a big opportunity for marketers in 2025

The trend: Live women's sports viewership more than doubled this year from 2022 levels, according to our forecast. That translates to nearly 5 million consistent viewers, though this represents less than 5% of total live sports viewers in the US.

Major events like the Olympics and NCAA finals attract approximately 10 times the viewership of a regular season pro-sports event.

Why it matters: The growth has created new commercial opportunities.

• The WNBA's media-rights negotiations have resulted in significantly higher valuations than previous cycles, reflecting the rising commercial interest.
• WPP has established dedicated upfront advertising commitments specifically for women's sports programming.
• Professional women's sports have expanded to include two volleyball leagues where none existed before—and even college volleyball broadcasts have graduated from niche networks to mainstream channels like NBC, Fox, and ABC.

Brand engagement is showing significant evolution.

• Traditional sports advertisers are substantially increasing their women's sports investments.
• New advertising categories are entering the sports market to tap a broadening fan base. Cosmetics has emerged as a fast-growing advertising category in sports as women become more visible.
• Name, image, and likeness (NIL) rules have created unprecedented opportunities for elevating women's sports stars.

“We're seeing a whole host of new advertising categories that haven't historically been in sports,” Genius Sports CRO Josh Linforth noted during a recent EMARKETER webinar. “Cosmetics is a great example. That's one of our fastest growth categories as a business this year, and that's really all being driven by women's sports,” he said.

The women's sports growth is occurring within larger industry shifts:

• Sports media rights fees have doubled in value over the past decade.
• Major streaming platforms are actively competing for women's sports content rights.
• Traditional broadcasters are dedicating more prime slots to women's sports coverage.

Our take: The doubling of women's sports viewership represents more than just audience growth—it’s a noteworthy shift in the sports media landscape.

The combination of NIL rules, increased media investment, and new advertising categories bodes well for continued growth. The main challenge will be maintaining momentum beyond major events and converting tentpole viewers into consistent audience members. Success will depend on sustained media coverage, strategic brand partnerships, and continued development of compelling storylines.

This article is part of EMARKETER’s client-only subscription Briefings—daily newsletters authored by industry analysts who are experts in marketing, advertising, media, and tech trends. To help you finish 2024 strong, and start 2025 off on the right foot, articles like this one—delivering the latest news and insights—are completely free through January 31, 2025. If you want to learn how to get insights like these delivered to your inbox every day, and get access to our data-driven forecasts, reports, and industry benchmarks, schedule a demo with our sales team.