After a record-setting championship game in 2024, the NWSL has one-upped itself.
Saturday’s NWSL Championship between Gotham FC and Washington Spirit averaged 1.18 million viewers in primetime on CBS, up 22% versus last year’s match between the Spirit and Orlando Pride (967,900 viewers in the same CBS window). It is the most-watched NWSL title game in history, and the first NWSL match to ever crack the seven-figure threshold.
U.S. Women’s National Team star Rose Lavelle broke a scoreless draw for Gotham FC in the 80th minute with a strike from outside the penalty box. The Spirit were unable to answer and Gotham took down the championship in a 1-0 scoreline.
It was the fourth year that CBS had aired the league’s final match in primetime. The game’s primary competition came from college football, with ABC airing Tennessee-Florida and Fox airing BYU-Cincinnati in their respective primetime windows.
Overall, the NWSL saw a record season on CBS. The network averaged 551,000 viewers across its regular season and postseason inventory, up 19% versus last season (463,000 viewers). The postseason alone averaged 712,000 viewers, up 9% year-over-year (654,000 viewers).
2025 marked the second season under the NWSL’s new set of four-year media rights agreements with Disney, Paramount, Amazon, and Scripps. The deals showcase 91 matches on linear television across the ESPN family of networks, CBS and CBS Sports Network, and Scripps’ Ion.
Next season, the NWSL is expanding to 16 teams with the introduction of Boston Legacy FC and Denver Summit FC.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.