The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) is finding new fans in more places than just the stadium.
According to new data from the league, views across its YouTube channels increased 41.7 percent in the first 10 weeks of the 2026 season, reaching 11.2 million. Watch time increased by nearly 50 percent, and subscribers grew by 17.9 percent.
Those gains are part of a strong first half of the NWSL season. Attendance has increased, the league’s public following has expanded, and merchandise sales have increased. New clubs and a wider mix of streaming and streaming options are also creating more ways for people to follow the league.
So, who are these new fans, how do they discover the NWSL, and what turns their interest into a lasting connection with the league?
Who watches NWSL?
The NWSL’s audience is broader than the young, mostly female fans who are often associated with women’s sports.
Nielsen estimates the league has 39.3 million fans in the United States by 2025, up from 30.8 million in 2023. On ESPN, women accounted for nearly half of the NWSL audience for the second consecutive season, with viewership among women ages 18 to 34 up 30 percent year-over-year. The league’s average audience for ESPN Deportes also more than doubled from 2024, increasing by 109 percent.
Women now account for nearly half of ESPN’s affiliate audience, while women ages 18 to 34 are among the fastest-growing viewership groups. Spanish-language viewership is also growing, introducing the league to more fans across America.
That growing audience seems to be reflected in the forums. Mashable’s senior reporter Matt Binder attended Gotham FC’s recent game at Citi Field, where more than 40,000 people came to watch the team play — the largest women’s sports event in New York history.
“There were more little girls than little boys at any NYCFC game I’ve been to,” Binder said.
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For young fans, following a team goes far beyond going to games. NWSL clubs and players share highlights, interviews, training videos, and behind-the-scenes content across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. This allows fans to stay connected between games while drawing new fans.
YouTube and social media are becoming a big part of the NWSL
The NWSL’s recent YouTube acquisitions are part of a broader increase in viewership across its media programs. In Week 10, coverage of the game generated more than 1 billion minutes watched across broadcast, broadcast, and digital platforms.
Mashable Trend Report
The platform has played a similar role in all women’s sports, giving leagues and athletes an additional way to reach younger audiences. Matt Hochberg, head of Hochberg Sports Marketing, a FIFA-licensed women’s soccer agency, described the stadium as a key factor in growing more women’s leagues.
“Female sports fans are robbing the younger ones [and] for the first time,” Hochberg wrote in an X post about the NWSL’s YouTube benefits, adding that the audience also attracts brands trying to reach the same demographic.
The broader audience for this category is growing, too. Its combined following increased 24 percent year over year to 3.1 million across all six major platforms. According to the NWSL, fans engage with highlights, behind-the-scenes access, player-focused stories, and other league content.
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Singles also bring a large audience of their own. Trinity Rodman, Rose Lavelle, Sophia Wilson, and Mallory Swanson have each built community followings of hundreds of thousands of fans that reach far beyond their NWSL clubs.
The US national team players are part of that equation. The NWSL has fielded players from 55 national teams by 2025, allowing clubs to reach fans who already follow those athletes in their home countries. Current Kansas City forward Temwa Chawinga, for example, represents Malawi and has become one of the NWSL’s biggest stars after winning back-to-back league MVP awards.
More fans attend the games
The NWSL’s digital growth comes as attendance increases. Clubs averaged 11,044 fans per game during the first half of the 2026 season, up 10 percent from the same period last year. The league reached the million mark faster than any previous season and is on pace to average more than 10,000 fans for the fourth year in a row.
The biggest crowd of the season came to Denver back in March 2026, when expansion club Denver Summit FC hosted the Washington Spirit at Empower Field at Mile High. The game drew 63,004 fans, setting a league attendance record and the largest crowd for a professional women’s sports event in the United States.
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Denver Summit and Boston Legacy FC both joined the league in 2026, expanding the NWSL to 16 teams. The additions created local fan clubs in two new markets and gave the league more games, players, and stories to appear in all of its stadiums.
The same is available through CBS Sports, ESPN, Prime Video, ION, Victory+, and the NWSL+ league service. Highlights and other clips then extend the life of those shows across YouTube and social media.
Fans also buy more merchandise
The league’s sales numbers provide another sign of growing involvement.
Combined merchandise sales across all NWSL clubs increased by 72 percent in the first half of the season compared to the same period in 2025. Sales through the NWSL Store increased by 207 percent.
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The league did not disclose total revenue, but cited increased demand for club merchandise, player products, and league-branded apparel.
There are also many fans to follow on the field. Every club in the NWSL has beaten top-flight opposition at least once this season. In the middle, the league recorded 10 percent more interruptions than at the same time last year, and many games were decided twice in the last 15 minutes.
Those late goals and upsets create a steady stream of unmissable highlights. With the growing NWSL fanbase, sometimes one highlight is all it takes to get the ball rolling.
