ESPN’s college softball coverage saw double-digit viewership growth throughout the season scoring its most-watched Women’s College World Series production since 2015, most-viewed Super Regionals since 2008 and best regular season since 2016.
ESPN’s coverage of this year’s 15-game Women’s College World Series tournament (May 30 – June 4) averaged one million viewers, up 20% year-over-year. The two-game championship series (June 3-4) between the UCLA Bruins and Oklahoma Sooners averaged 1,574,000 viewers, up 13% year over year. The Bruins’ championship clinching game-two win averaged 1,799,000 viewers, up 17% year-over-year. Game one of the championship series averaged 134,000,000 viewers, up 7% year-over-year.
The three games on Semifinals Sunday (June 2) averaged 1,340,000 viewers, up 43% over last year’s similar three-game slate, resulting in the most-watched Semifinal Sunday since 2015. The entire 13-game, round robin (May 30-June2) averaged 962,000 viewers, up 23% year-over-year. Six of the early round games averaged one million viewers or more:
|
Date |
Game |
Network |
Viewers |
|
Sun, June 2 |
Alabama vs. Oklahoma Semifinal Sunday, Game 1 |
ESPN/ESPN2 |
1,430,000 |
|
Sun, June 2 |
Oklahoma vs. Alabama Semifinal Sunday, Game 2 |
ESPN2 |
1,346,000 |
|
Sun, June 2 |
Washington vs. UCLA |
ESPN |
1,276,000 |
|
Sat, June 1 |
Oklahoma State vs. Washington |
ESPN |
1,261,000 |
|
Fri, May 31 |
Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State |
ESPN |
1,058,000 |
|
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Florida vs. Alabama |
ESPN |
1,042,000 |
Super Regional coverage (May 23-26) averaged 510,000 viewers across 19 games, the most-watched Super Regional round since 2008, and up 36% year over year. Regular season games on ESPN’s Nielsen rated networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU) were up 40% this season, with the 28 games on ESPN/ESPN2 (up from 23 last year) averaging 266,000 viewers per game.
Viewership for the ACC and SEC Conference Championship Games (May 11) was up significantly year-over-year and each saw its largest audiences since 2016:
SEC Championship: Averaged 549,000 viewers, up 130% year-over year
SEC Semifinals: Averaged 280,000 viewers, up 177% year-over-year
ACC Championship: Averaged 480,000 viewers; up 41% year-over-year
— Courtesy of Kimberly Elchlepp, ESPN