Women’s Sport Trust reveals 44.7m viewers made 2024 a new record year

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·7 February 2025

Women’s Sport Trust reveals 44.7m viewers made 2024 a new record year

The Women’s Sport Trust has found that domestic sport and interest in female athletes experienced continued growth in 2024.

The Women’s Sport Trust was founded after the 2012 Olympics in London, and aims to increase the visibility and impact of women’s sport in the UK. It is the leading UK charity focused on accelerating gender equality through sport.

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Record highs for viewing figures

Women’s sport in the UK achieved its most-watched year ever in 2024. An impressive 44.7 million viewers tuned in, surpassing the previous record of 37.6 million in 2022. These figures do not include viewers for global tournaments, such as the FIFA World Cup.

Despite this, when comparing viewing figures including global tournaments, 2023 is still ahead of 2024.

In 2023, viewers hit 46.7 million, but dropped to 45.2 million last year. The lack of a major tournament for the Lionesses is at play here. This lack of a major tournament also saw falling viewing times. Viewing hours dropped from 383 million in 2023, to 164 million in 2024.

Average viewing time per person also fell from ten hours, seven minutes in 2023 to five hours, 47 minutes. However, compared to 2021 — the last year the Lionesses did not compete in a major tournament — this still represents an increase of two hours in average viewing time per person.

A total of 22.9 million viewers watched two hours or more of women’s sport — surpassing 21.7 million in 2022. Additionally, despite coverage for women’s sport on key channels remaining at 8 percent, 15 percent of viewing hours on key channels were dedicated to women’s sport. This is up from 10 percent in 2023.

Similarly, in 2024, Sky provided 61 percent of coverage hours and 34 percent of viewing hours for women’s sport. Free To Air viewing on the BBC (37 percent) and ITV (24 percent) accounted for the majority of viewing hours.

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Digital growth continues to soar

Growth is also happening on digital platforms, with leading leagues and federations experiencing remarkable engagement across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.

In 2024, the WTA garnered 71 million views on YouTube, in an exciting year which saw three different Grand Slam winners. The WNBA led the charge for TikTok views (361 million) and Instagram engagements (90 million).

Globally, female athletes continue to dominate digitally. The elite UK athlete with the most TikTok views in 2024 was BMX rider and Olympian Charlotte Worthington. The Nielsen sisters, Lina and Laviai, featured in the top five alongside Mary Earps and Ella Toone.

Furthermore, despite being launched a year ago, Chelsea Women’s account amassed 167 million TikTok views. This was more than any other women’s sports team on a dedicated women’s-only TikTok account worldwide. Similarly, Lucy Bronze had more Instagram engagements than any other WSL player in 2024.

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‘The women’s sport eco-system is thriving’

CEO at Women’s Sport Trust, Tammy Parlour MBE, said: “The continued growth of domestic women’s sport is a powerful indicator that fan engagement, sponsorship opportunities, and media coverage are on the rise. Although viewing time per person fell due to the absence of the Lionesses in an international football tournament, the fact that it remains significantly higher than in 2021 shows that the women’s sport ecosystem is thriving, even outside major football events.

“With a thrilling year ahead for both UK domestic and global women’s sporting events, there are a range of growth areas for women’s sport to target in 2025. This includes new competition structures supported by enhanced broadcast coverage and innovative distribution models, converting men’s sports fans, building women’s only sport audiences and better engaging youth audiences and ethnically diverse viewers. Essential to plans will be creating targeted strategies to expand fan bases across multiple demographic groups and ensure broader representation in viewers.”