Over the past several years, women’s sports viewership has exploded, with record-breaking audiences and large revenue growth. This is all due to the stars of women’s sports, who each have their own stories that many viewers can connect with, along with bright personalities, making women’s sports enjoyable to watch.
One of the biggest examples of the growth of women’s sports is Caitlin Clark, a basketball star. Clark was a player for the University of Iowa Women’s Basketball team from 2020 to 2024. From the moment Clark stepped on the court, fans fell in love with her high-scoring style, signature logo-range three-pointers, and unique playmaking. By the second half of her collegiate career, attendance at Iowa’s away games was reaching 13,000 fans, more than double the attendance of non-Iowa games at those venues. Clark finished her career as the NCAA all-time leading scorer for both men and women, and in 2024, when Iowa competed in the NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship, the game attracted 17 million viewers. Caitlin Clark’s impact on women’s sports, now termed the Caitlin Clark Effect, cannot be ignored, as it boosted women’s sports in terms of media coverage and fans. Caitlin Clark is still breaking records today as a player for the WNBA team, the Indiana Fever, driving the league to its highest viewership during her 2024 rookie season, significantly increasing ticket sales, and bringing a 236% increase in merchandise sales.
American tennis star Coco Gauff is one of the most well-known women’s tennis players and has significantly boosted women’s sports viewership. In 2023, Gauff won her first Grand Slam at the U.S. Open at age 19, and this match drew over 3.4 million viewers. In 2025, Gauff won her second Grand Slam at the French Open, with this match drawing 1.5 million viewers, a 94% increase from the 2024 French Open final. Gauff is also the highest-paid female athlete, and according to Forbes, “This year [2025], Gauff was one of 20 players who wrote to the heads of the Grand Slam tournaments asking for an increase in prize money and more decision-making authority for athletes, a campaign that helped drive the U.S. Open’s increase to a record $90 million purse.” Coco Gauff is a role model as an athlete and as a person, and has been a major player in growing the popularity of women’s sports.
Gymnast Simone Biles has also been a major player in the massive surge in women’s sports engagement. Biles is an 11-time Olympic medalist, and upon her return to competing in the Paris Olympics, her performance brought in 35 million viewers. Biles is a key figure in mainstreaming women’s sports and redefining gymnastics as a sport. Regarding advice she would give to other female athletes, Biles says, “I would say, dream big and dream bigger after that, ‘cause you never know where your career will take you.”
These women’s sports stars are among many athletes leading the way to putting women’s sports on the map. For college athletics, the NCAA is seeing record-high participation in women’s sports across divisions. “Of the 242,341 total student-athletes competing in women’s sports during the 2024-25 academic year, 235,349 competed in championship sports, up 12% over the past 10 years and 2% since 2023-24,” reports the NCAA. At the same time, the number of women in sports leadership roles, such as coaches and athletic directors, has significantly increased. Three-time national champion women’s basketball coach for the South Carolina Gamecocks, Dawn Staley, sees the growth of women’s basketball and women’s sports as a whole as better than anything she could have hoped for. “Nowadays, young people have goals of making it to the WNBA… All of their lives, there has been a WNBA. For them, they are lifting our sport,” Staley said. “Whatever I could have imagined, I don’t think it could have turned out as beautiful as what we are experiencing right now.”
For years to come, we will continue to see the emergence and growth of women’s sports worldwide. The Caitlin Clark Effect will continue to transform women’s sports, shattering viewership records and bringing long-term success. Clark now reflects on her endless impact, saying, “This was never my goal to change women’s sports. I just showed up, and I played, and I loved every single second of it. I feel a responsibility to show up and put a smile on everybody’s face that buys a ticket.” Clark, along with numerous other female athletes, will continue to inspire the younger generations of athletes and forever put women’s sports on the map.
