2025 is widely viewed as a watershed year for women’s sport as it combined record-breaking audiences with mainstream cultural impact, proving that women’s competitions can deliver some of the biggest sporting moments of the year.
That mattered because mass viewership drives investment, lifting broadcast rights, sponsorship, prize money, and the professional structures that support both elite players and grassroots participation.
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Major tournaments exemplified that shift. The 2025 UEFA Women’s European Championships drew a record 12.2 million viewers for England’s Euro 2025 final across BBC platforms and became the most-watched broadcast moment of 2025 among all TV broadcasters in England.
The Women’s Rugby World Cup final also peaked at 5.8 million viewers, making it the most-watched rugby match of the year and reinforcing that women’s sport was not only growing in 2025 but, in key moments, leading.
That momentum now shapes the trends most likely to define 2026. One of the clearest is that distribution and accessibility will remain decisive for building consistent audiences, which is why social media is set to play an even bigger role.
2025 showed that reach still depends heavily on where matches are shown, with women’s football offering a sharp example of how paywalls and scheduling can limit visibility. Chelsea v Arsenal on 8 November averaged 71,000 viewers on Sky Sports, compared with 732,000 for the equivalent fixture the previous season when it was shown free-to-air on the BBC during the men’s international break.
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By GlobalDataIn 2026, social platforms offer a more consistent way to keep fans engaged regardless of broadcast slot or subscription requirements. Highlights, clips, behind-the-scenes access, and player-led storytelling can travel far beyond a live TV audience, helping maintain interest between fixtures and turning occasional viewers into regular followers.
The scale of digital demand is already clear. In 2025, major women’s events became significant social moments, with the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 and the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 driving widespread online conversation and content sharing.
The Women’s Rugby World Cup alone generated 1.1 billion social media impressions. Going into 2026, that level of engagement matters because it is measurable and increasingly persuasive to commercial partners. It allows leagues, teams, and rights holders to demonstrate growth to sponsors, reach younger demographics, and justify increased marketing investment.
Social discovery also expands the top of the funnel, as short-form video and platform algorithms can introduce new fans to players, rivalries, and narratives even if they were not actively seeking the sport.
Athletes will be central to that shift. Female players are increasingly using platforms like TikTok and Instagram to build personal brands and connect directly with supporters in a way that often feels more authentic than official channels and can outperform them. Players from the England women’s rugby team, for example, generated 75% more TikTok views than their male counterparts, highlighting how personality-driven storytelling can accelerate growth.
In 2026, that direct connection is likely to deepen loyalty, broaden fanbases, and create new commercial opportunities through creator-style partnerships. As a result, an athlete’s owned audience and influence will sit even closer to performance as a driver of sponsorship value.
Sponsorship itself is expected to keep expanding, building on the commercial acceleration seen in 2025. Women’s sport revenues are projected to reach $2.35 billion in 2025, roughly triple the value of three years prior, driven by a surge in sponsorship deals, high-profile partnerships, and rising audience engagement, compared with $692 million in 2022.
Basketball and football have led the way, with women’s basketball alone forecast to generate more than $1 billion, according to Deloitte. Major brands, including Nike and e.l.f. Beauty, have increased long-term commitments, and more than 2,000 active sponsorship deals were recorded.
In 2026, the market is likely to move toward more integrated, digitally led partnerships that are designed around measurable engagement, community impact, and content rather than simple logo placement. At the same time, as the category matures, rights holders will need to manage challenges around accessibility and the risk of deal saturation, particularly as more brands compete for a limited number of premium properties.
The 2026 calendar will also provide major accelerators for growth and visibility. Global events, including the Winter Olympic Games, the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, and the Commonwealth Games, are set to deliver large audience moments that can convert attention into longer-term fandom.
At Milan–Cortina 2026, the Winter Olympics will feature the highest proportion of female athletes in Winter games history at 47%. That figure matters because progress toward parity is increasingly driven by what events are offered, since medal opportunities and investment follow competition access.
Milan–Cortina 2026 will add one new sport, ski mountaineering, alongside five new events, including women’s luge doubles, women’s and men’s freestyle skiing dual moguls, women’s large hill individual ski jumping, and a mixed team skeleton event. Expanding women’s events and introducing mixed events increases visibility and medal opportunities, which in turn helps unlock investment in women’s winter sport.
Ski jumping remains a clear illustration of why these changes resonate. Women were only admitted to Olympic ski jumping in 2014 at Sochi, despite men competing in the sport since the first Winter Olympics in 1924. Since then, athletes have continued to push not only for equal opportunities but also for fair treatment, including challenges to restrictive uniform rules such as the requirement for additional hip padding until 2020, justified as being more appropriate for the female body.
While more progress is still needed across winter sport, Milan–Cortina 2026 represents a meaningful step forward and is likely to help drive another cycle of attention and investment.
In 2026, women’s sport is therefore set to build on 2025’s breakthrough year rather than simply repeat it. Sponsorship should continue to grow, with partnerships becoming more integrated and more accountable to digital performance. Social media will become even more central, both as a route around inconsistent broadcast reach and as a metric that brands increasingly value.
Viewership is likely to peak around major international events, while week-to-week league audiences will depend heavily on distribution and free-to-air visibility. Athletes will play a bigger role than ever in shaping fandom and commercial value through creator-style content and direct relationships with supporters.
