Key Takeaways:
– Women’s sports are riding a tidal wave of growth. Viewership, attendance, engagement, and revenue are increasing globally, moving female athletes from niche to mainstream
– Athletes’ fame plays a bigger role in women’s sports. Rights holders must elevate star-driven narratives if they want to keep the momentum going
–Scalable storytelling demands AI-powered content creation. Turning star moments into consistent content is no longer optional — it’s essential for monetization
It was the middle of June. The NBA finals were in full swing, the Golden State Warriors were long gone after being eliminated in the second round, but Joe Lacob – the team's principal owner and a man who doesn't settle for playoff appearances – couldn't have been happier.
The reason: his latest investment, the Golden State Valkyries of the WNBA, were off to a flying start. The WNBA's expansion team became the first women's team to sell 10,000 season tickets, has sold out every home game, and Forbes projects it will be the league’s most valuable franchise by next season. “The word’s starting to get out,” said Lacob, “it’s a pretty exciting experience.”
The excitement around the Valkyries is another feather in the cap of the WNBA, which just announced it will expand from 15 to 18 teams by 2030. The announcement comes on the heels of a record-setting season; In 2024, the league enjoyed its most-watched regular season in 24 years, finished with its highest attendance in 22 years, and set records for digital consumption and merchandise sales.
Breaking Barriers: Women’s Sports’ Historic Rise
This kind of success doesn't happen in a vacuum. Women's sports as a whole is experiencing unprecedented growth globally, moving from niche to mainstream.
In the US, the number of people watching women's sports monthly more than doubled between 2022 and 2024. Female Olympians generated 53% of total engagement across social content during the Summer Olympics in Paris 2024. And global revenue from women's sports nearly doubled from $981 million in 2023 to $1.88 billion in 2024, with $2.35 billion projected for 2025, per a Deloitte report.
Across the pond, 12.2 million fans tuned in to watch England's historic repeat as Women's Euro final champions, making it the most watched television moment of 2025 across all television broadcasters. While 60% watched on BBC One, over 4 million people streamed the match on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app — a tell-tale sign that this audience is young, and primed for growth.
Recognizing that women’s sports is having a moment, Paramount Advertising conducted a study to understand what drives the surge in interest in female athletes. Combining qualitative interviews with a nationally representative quantitative survey, the study reveals some myths and truths about women’s sports fan base today. Key findings include:
-Men make up a larger portion of the fan base – 52% of all women’s sports fans are men
-95% of respondents consider themselves fans of women’s sports, indicating that the threshold for fandom is low
-93% of fans agree that female athletes are important role models for all children, not just girls
Game Changers: Elite Athletes Making an Impact on Women’s Sports
That's especially true for the top echelon of female athletes, who are the rising tide that lifts all boats.
Take WNBA sensation Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever, for example. In the 2024 season, Fever games with Clark averaged 1.18 million viewers, compared to 394,000 for all other games. 22 games last season averaged over one million viewers – 19 of which involved the Fever. Indiana also led the league with an average home attendance of 17,035, a year-over-year increase of 319%.
Ilona Maher has had a similar effect on Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR), England’s elite league for women’s 15-a-side rugby union. The American, who rose to stardom during the Paris Olympics, is the most popular rugby player on the planet with 5 million followers on Instagram and 3.6 million on TikTok. Since she arrived in England, her team (Bristol Bears) has attracted record crowds, and most of Maher’s games have been broadcast live on TNT Sports.
Maher’s and Clark's cases echo the findings of The Fame Gap, a 1,400-person survey of sports fans across the UK and the US, commissioned by creative agency Sid Lee London. According to the study, athletes' fame plays a much bigger role in women’s sports than in men’s sports. Key insights include:
-Fans were 51% more likely to start following women’s sports due to buzz about an individual athlete on social media or in the news
-The presence of a talented individual is more important to fans of women’s sport when it comes to purchasing tickets
-Women’s sports fans are more digitally engaged. They are significantly more likely to follow players on social media than fans of men’s sports
From Moments to Momentum: AI-Powered Content as the Growth Catalyst
“Our report has significant implications for rights holders as they seek to maximize the long-term commercial value of women’s sports,” said Rory Natkiel, Sid Lee London’s Head of Strategy. “To increase fan acquisition and match-day attendance, broadcasters and rights holders must collaborate to make female athletes famous.”
When athlete visibility is the growth engine, the next step is scale. Elevating individual stars requires more than broadcasting games — it demands a steady stream of compelling, multi-format content that moves fast and reaches far. AI-powered content creation enables rights holders to meet that demand efficiently, turning standout moments into the momentum women's sports needs to win in a crowded attention economy.
Actionable Insights
If you're a sports content professional and responsible for marketing women's competition to the masses, here are three things that you can start working on today:
-Double Down on Star Power: Prioritize content around individual athletes — behind-the-scenes access, personality-driven clips, and milestone moments. Fans are more likely to engage with women’s sports through standout figures, so elevate your stars across every platform
-Automate to Amplify: Use AI tools to instantly generate highlight reels, short-form clips, and multi-format content. Real-time publishing keeps pace with fan demand and turns fleeting moments into long-term engagement drivers
-Own the Relationship: Distribute content through your owned channels — app, website, newsletter — not just social. Women’s sports fans are digitally native and values-driven, making them primed for direct engagement, community-building, and monetization
