Volleyball continues to be a growth property for ESPN.
Sunday’s NCAA Volleyball Championship between Louisville and Penn State averaged 1.3 million viewers on ABC, the second most-watched title game on record. Penn State’s fourth set win, which secured its eighth championship in the sport, peaked at 1.9 million viewers. The match aired directly against Sunday afternoon NFL games on other broadcast networks.
1.3M viewers tuned in to the 2024 @NCAAVolleyball Championship 🔥
🏐 @LouisvilleVB vs @PennStateVBALL was the 2nd most-watched #NCAAWVB Championship EVER
🏐 Peaked at 1.9M viewers
🏐 Entire 2024 NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament finished up 41% year-over-year pic.twitter.com/KQbZPun1je— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) December 24, 2024
Although the audience figure is impressive, it is down double-digits from last year’s record-setting audience. The 2023 NCAA Volleyball Championship between Texas and Nebraska averaged 1.69 million viewers, also on ABC. The approximately 400,000 viewer decline makes for a 23% drop year-over-year.
The 2024 title game ranks as the third most-watched college volleyball game ever behind last year’s championship and a Big Ten regional volleyball window on Fox that drew 1.66 million viewers with an NFL lead-in last season.
Despite a decline in the championship, the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament as a whole finished up 41% year-over-year, according to ESPN PR. That total tournament figure was surely helped by record-setting regional and semifinal rounds. Both matches of this year’s semis averaged over one million viewers, while the regional round averaged over 400,000 viewers per match, nearly double last year’s average.
Given the continued success of the sport, expect ESPN to continue highlighting its postseason with favorable broadcast windows.
[ESPN PR]
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.