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The shift had been building for years. TikTok views climbing, Instagram engagement rising, YouTube numbers surging. Women's sports had been quietly winning the digital race since 2022. In 2025, that quiet revolution became impossible to ignore.
Average viewing time per viewer reached 9 hours and 45 minutes in 2025, with women's sports seeing 60% growth on TikTok and 55% on YouTube while men's sports declined on these platforms. Total viewing hours for women's sports on UK broadcast reached a record 357 million hours from January to September 2025, up from 339 million during the same period in 2023. These numbers only told half the story. The revolution wasn't happening in broadcast negotiations or sponsorship deals. It was unfolding in real time, athlete by athlete, post by post, as fans chose to follow, engage, and share content that felt authentic rather than manufactured.
Female athletes' personal social media channels proved more effective than official accounts at attracting young women aged 13-34. This wasn't just a marketing insight. It was a power transfer. For decades, women's sports waited for permission: permission for broadcast time, permission for investment, permission for legitimacy. In 2025, athletes stopped waiting. They built their own audiences, commanded their own narratives, and proved their own worth without asking anyone's approval.
The evidence was everywhere. U.S. rugby sevens player Ilona Maher commanded 8.5 million followers across Instagram and TikTok, making her the most-followed rugby player in history, more than any male player in the sport. When she signed with Bristol Bears in January 2025, her debut generated a record PWR crowd of 9,240, and Bristol's Instagram following exploded from 21,000 to 67,000 overnight. When Maher featured in Bristol's match-day squad, broadcast audiences rose 281%. One athlete, through authentic connection with her audience, single-handedly transformed a club's visibility, attendance, and commercial value.
Freda Ayisi, a Ghanaian international who plays for Watford FC and formerly starred for Arsenal and Birmingham, generated more TikTok views than all Women's Super League players and teams combined, with her skills-based videos reaching more than 436 million views in 2024 alone across her 2.6 million TikTok followers and 1 million Instagram followers. In one standout week, her Instagram engagement reached an all-time high, connecting with over 10.4 million accounts in just six days. Her reach attracted collaborations with Pepsi, Adidas, PlayStation, Apple, Nike, and Puma, while she taught Brazilian legends Roberto Carlos and Cafu her signature skills on Soccer AM. Elite status no longer determined reach. Authenticity did. The old rules no longer applied.
During the 2025 Women's Six Nations, England's Red Roses players posted more TikTok content than any other England team across rugby, cricket, or football, generating 6.7 million views, 75% more than the England men's rugby team. In the UK, Chelsea Women became the fifth most-viewed official account in English football across both men's and women's games thanks to their dedicated podcast distributed across multiple platforms. Women weren't competing for attention anymore. They were winning it.
The commercial implications reshaped entire leagues. The WNBA led TikTok with 131 million views globally, while the WTA topped YouTube with 63 million views, up 75% year-over-year. U.S. publishers like Just Women's Sports and Togethxr drove 359 million and 62 million TikTok views, respectively, in Q1 2025, far outpacing legacy media brands. Unrivaled treated social media specialists like "the seventh player" on each team's roster, with Chief Growth Officer Chloe Pavlech explaining: "Their job is to be embedded, not just to film content, but to build trust. That's what makes the content real."
This is why digital dominance ranks #1. Every record attendance, every media deal, every investment dollar in 2025 was driven by proof of audience, and digital platforms provided that proof in real time, undeniably, at scale. The WNBA's $2.2 billion media deal happened because Caitlin Clark's games broke streaming records. The Women's Rugby World Cup (#6 in our countdown) sold 444,465 tickets because players built anticipation through authentic content. Michele Kang (sneak peek: our Sportsperson of the Year) invested millions because she saw the digital engagement numbers proving demand.
Digital didn't just amplify women's sports. It fundamentally restructured the power dynamic. Athletes no longer needed traditional media to validate their worth. They could demonstrate it directly, build communities themselves, and negotiate from positions of proven strength. As Maher told Sky Sports: "If we talk about we want more funding, we want more this, we have to put ourselves out there for that. If we want this to grow, it is on us." And in 2025, they did exactly that.
The future of women's sports isn't being negotiated in boardrooms or broadcast deals. It's being built in real time, by athletes who understand their power, on platforms that reward authenticity over access. Every other moment in this countdown was spectacular. This one was foundational.
The future isn't coming. It's here. And it's digital, athlete-led, and unstoppable. [RS]
Join us daily for the countdown to #1, followed by our Sportsperson of the Year.
Sources:
Women’s Sport Reaches New Heights in 2025: WST’s Annual Review || Female Viewership Grows as Women’s Sport Breaks New Records Across Broadcast and Digital || How women’s sport is building its own audience with TikTok || US rugby star Ilona Maher tearfully ends her short but significant time in England with Bristol Bears Women || Ilona Maher: Bristol Bears star says rugby union needs culture shift to create stars and grow the game || Freda Ayisi || Freda Ayisi - Wikipedia
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