ESPN earns most-watched NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament ever

Women’s college volleyball continues to be a solid growth property for ESPN.

The network announced earlier this week that this year’s NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament was the most-watched on record, averaging 666,000 viewers across 15 matches on the ESPN family of networks, up 13% year-over-year.

This year’s tournament was capped off with Texas A&M’s straight-set win over Kentucky in the championship, which averaged 1.4 million viewers on ABC opposite the Week 16 Sunday afternoon NFL slate. The championship was the second most-watched in history behind only the 2023 title match between Texas and Nebraska, which averaged 1.69 million viewers. Texas A&M’s win saw an 8% year-over-year viewership increase compared to the Penn State-Louisville matchup in 2024.

While the title game fell short of a viewership record, both the regional finals and regional semifinals were the most-watched in history. The semis averaged 402,000 viewers while the finals averaged 753,000 viewers. In addition to record-setting regional semifinal and final rounds, the women’s college volleyball regular season also set a new high on ESPN, averaging 190,000 viewers, up 36% from 2024.

Overall, it was the most-consumed NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament on record according to ESPN, with 1.3 billion minutes consumed across the entire competition. Four matches averaged over one million viewers: the championship, national semifinals, and a regional match between Texas A&M and Nebraska, which averaged 1.2 million viewers.

Networks are rightfully investing more into women’s college volleyball, and the audiences are following. Will the sport ever reach the same heights of women’s college basketball? Unlikely. But the sport is solidifying itself as quite a valuable property, similar to college softball, during its postseason run. And the more ESPN leans into promoting the event, the closer the gap could become between volleyball and other more popular sports.