The NWSL championship on CBS averaged 967,900 viewers in prime time Saturday, making it the most-watched NWSL game in league history and punctuating what has been one of the most-watched seasons, the league announced Tuesday.
The championship game, which saw Marta and the top-ranked Orlando Pride defeat the No. 2 Washington Spirit 1-0, drew in 18 percent more viewers compared to last year’s title game, and marked a six percent jump from the 2022 championship, according to the NWSL. The match peaked at 1.1 million viewers, despite being up against college football.
The record viewership happened in conjunction with the league’s historic $240 million media rights deal, which brought more games to more networks than ever before.
Ahead of the league’s title game in Kansas City, NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman reflected on the first year of this media landscape. The league’s goals were twofold, she said: to reset the value of its live rights and increase distribution of NWSL games.
“The impact of what we’ve seen has been exactly what we had hoped for,” she said, announcing that total regular season viewership reached a cumulative 14 million viewers, a 285 percent jump year-over-year, with more than 2 million people tuning in to the NWSL playoffs.
“We have to remind…
