WCWS championship games average 2 million viewers for most-watched finals

By Jenna West, Richard Deitsch and Jayna Bardahl

This year’s Women’s College World Series championship finals between Oklahoma and Texas set a new record for the most-watched title series, averaging two million viewers.

Viewership for Game 2 of the WCWS finals rose 24 percent from 2023 and three percent from the previous all-time high in 2015, according to ESPN, which aired the series. Game 2, which Oklahoma won 8-4 to claim its fourth straight title, peaked with 2.5 million viewers.

Additionally, Games 1 and 2 of this year’s WCWS became the second and third most-viewed softball games on ESPN+.

College softball has steadily increased in popularity over the past decade. Viewership for the WCWS finals reached a record 1.85 million viewers in 2021 and notably passed the men’s CWS championship with 1.6 million viewers in 2022. The WCWS has reached at least 1 million viewers in each of its last four seasons (it did not air in 2020), and some believe the sport may be on the verge of a women’s basketball-like breakout.

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On Thursday, Oklahoma claimed a historic four-peat, the first in WCWS history. In a bit of a surprising move, coach Patty Gasso gave graduate student Karlie Keeney the start — just her fifth this season — and she pitched 2 2/3 innings while allowing four hits and two runs. Oklahoma went through nearly its entire pitching staff in Game 2, but that appeared mostly intentional.

The Sooners’ bats were hot for the second night in a row, recording 12 hits. They took the lead in the bottom of the second with a two-run homer from Kasidi Pickering before delivering the dagger with three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Meanwhile, top-seeded Texas scored on three RBIs and one error.

A record-setting WCWS

Seeing college softball set yet another viewership is not surprising. The sport has been drawing more eyes for some time now — a direct result of the increased exposure it has seen on broadcasts.

It’s worth noting attendance records at the WCWS were also set this week in Oklahoma City. Over the nine sessions between May 30 and June 6, five were sell-outs. Session 2 — which featured Texas versus Stanford and Florida versus Oklahoma State — set a record for the highest attendance ever (12,566). The WCWS nearly broke that record two days later, with 12,565 fans attending Oklahoma versus UCLA and Texas versus Florida.

Game 2 of the championship series between Oklahoma and Texas drew the largest crowd for the championship finals on record (12,324). Overall, the 2024 WCWS had the third-highest average attendance in tournament history with 12,200 per session. — Jayna Bardah, college sports writer

College softball viewership keeps growing

If you are someone who is into sports television viewership data, you already know how terrific the trajectory has been for women’s softball. Game 1 of the WCWS finals averaged 1.91 million viewers on ESPN, the largest audience on record for Game 1 of the series, so there was significant momentum to set an all-time viewership record.

The sport has received better programming windows from Disney in recent years (that means ABC for some games and ESPN over ESPN2) as a result of the interest — and viewership continues to rise. You can only imagine what the viewership number would be if it received even wider distribution for its title series such as an ABC game. This year’s 2.0 million average for the finals topped last year’s 1.6 million average which saw Oklahoma defeat Florida State. The 2022 championship series also averaged 1.6 million viewers.

What’s interesting about this is that it’s clear evidence that viewers are not tired of the Oklahoma juggernaut. Quite the opposite, in fact. — Richard Deitsch, sports media writer

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(Photo: Sarah Phipps / The Oklahoman / USA Today)