The Women’s Super League’s (WSL) non-nationally televised matches have seen a surge in viewership thanks to a recent deal signed with YouTube.
After agreeing to stream all 66 non-televised matches on YouTube for the current 2024/25 season, WSL viewing figures for these matches has tripled according to research by The Guardian.
So far, the total live views for WSL matches on YouTube has exceeded 1.5 million views, excluding replays of the live fixtures. This was attributed to the Arsenal women’s team not being selected for nationally televised matches for two out of the first three matchweeks.
Arsenal’s 0-0 draw against Everton was the highest-streamed match during matchweek three, garnering 148,000 viewers.
The most-streamed match was Manchester United’s win over West Ham Women’s on matchweek one, acquiring over 184,000 viewers, with replays also attracting 20,000 more viewers.
However, the most-streamed match of the 2024/25 WSL season on YouTube so far was the Arsenal 1-0 win over Leicester on 29 September with more than 250,000 viewers, a new record for a non-televised WSL fixture.
Before the deal with YouTube, non-televised WSL matches were broadcasted on FA Player, the English Football Associations‘ (FA) streaming service.
For context into how YouTube’s global popularity is helping to expand WSL’s exposure, the highest-viewed WSL game on FA Player was Arsenal’s match against Bristol City last season with more than 78,000 viewers.
The YouTube deal is not just helping the WSL’s non-televised matches, but also the Women’s Championship. Included in the deal, the Women’s Championship match between London City Lionesses and Newcastle broke the most-viewed non-televised fixture for the women’s second division, attracting more than 46,000 viewers.
The early success of the YouTube deal will be a welcome sign for the Women’s Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL), which took over the reigns and oversight of the two English women’s football leagues from The FA last summer.
Under the provision of the WPLL so far, the league has extended its title sponsorship with UK bank Barclays and the broadcast rights agreement with BBC and Sky Sports for televised games throughout the 2024/25 season.
