The Business of YouTube

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The New Attention Leaders: Women’s Sport Dominates Digital in 2025

This "summer of sport" has been a landmark for visibility, but the real story is how that visibility is evolving. A new report from the Women's Sport Trust, "The Summer of Sport: How Women's Sport is Being Seen in 2025," reveals a seismic shift.

_{You can download the full report here}

2025 has marked a new high for women’s sport, as audiences grow, digital engagement accelerates and major tournaments capture global attention.

The Digital Deep-Dive: YouTube & Social Lead the Charge

There is a major surge in digital engagement for women’s sports, outpacing men’s sports across key platforms.

From January to September 2025, women’s leagues saw substantial year-over-year growth in both video uploads and total views, especially on TikTok and YouTube.

• YouTube views jumped +55%, powered by more frequent uploads (+51%) and more consistent storytelling from leagues and teams.

• TikTok remained the breakout platform, with women’s sports properties seeing a +71% increase in uploads and +60% more views—far outpacing men’s sports, where Instagram and YouTube views actually declined.

What’s driving this?
Women’s sport is leaning into highly shareable formats:

• Behind-the-scenes access

• Quick-hit highlights

• Personality-led clips

• Short-form emotional moments

The Lionesses and Red Roses were standout digital engines this summer. The Lionesses alone generated 107M Instagram video views during the Euros and dominated TikTok via the England Football channel, which hit its second-highest month ever thanks to women’s content.

For platforms like YouTube, where watch time and narrative depth matter, women’s sport is now proving it can hold attention just as strongly as men’s, helped by richer match storytelling, expanded coverage windows, and increased investment in content teams.

The delta is shrinking fast: on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, women’s sport is now closing the gap with men’s properties far more quickly than expected.

For creators and advertisers, this is a clear signal: women’s sport isn’t a niche digital category anymore, it’s becoming one of the most efficient attention markets in sport.

YouTube, in particular, is emerging as a critical platform for international leagues, demonstrating an incredible appetite for on-demand video content.

• Liga F (Spain) grew by an incredible +490% YoY, reaching 39 million views.

• The WTA (Women's Tennis Association) also saw a massive +133% YoY jump in YouTube views.

This trend shows that when leagues make content accessible, a global, video-first audience is ready and waiting.

Sport-by-Sport Digital Insights (YouTube + Social Video Focus)

1. Football (UEFA Women’s Euro 2025)

• 313M TikTok & Instagram views on the official UEFA Women’s Euro channels (+207% vs 2022).

• The Lionesses dominated:

  • Most-viewed team on Instagram

  • 97M TikTok views for Lionesses content on the England Football account

  • 107M Instagram video views on the Lionesses account (+220% vs 2022).

• TikTok hashtags like #WEuro2025 hit 1.4B organic views (+36% vs WWC 2023).

• Top-performing content: emotional reactions, behind-the-scenes, humour, travel moments (e.g., taking the trophy through airport security — 13.3M views).

Takeaway: Women’s football is the most mature digital ecosystem and the clearest proof that women’s sport is now a global creator category.

2. Rugby (Rugby World Cup 2025)

• 171M total video views for RWC channels (+258% vs last women’s RWC).

• RugbyPass added another 69M views, heavily driven by personalities.

• Most-viewed TikTok clips were off-field moments (celebrations, family moments, team entrances), not match highlights.

• Ilona Maher remains a standout creator-athlete:

  • 41% of her Instagram audience is young women (13–34).

Takeaway: Rugby succeeded by leaning hard into character content rather than match clips. Women’s rugby might be the best example of athletes driving reach through personality.

3. Tennis (Wimbledon 2025)

• 69.3M online requests for Wimbledon (record).

• 231M social views from BBC Sport clips, with TikTok skewing heavily young (76% U34).

• Aryna Sabalenka featured in 5 of the 10 most-watched Wimbledon TikTok videos.

Takeaway: Individual stars fuel women’s tennis.

4. Cricket (England Cricket)

• Dramatic England vs India finish delivered 21M Facebook views, most-watched cricket clip of the year.

• Women’s cricket saw substantial YOY video growth across TikTok and Instagram.

Takeaway: Cricket’s older audience heavily uses Facebook, but TikTok is emerging as the growth platform for young fans.

5. Cycling, Athletics, Rowing, Triathlon, Equestrian, Gymnastics (NGBs)
Many Olympic-cycle sports saw triple- and quadruple-digit increases in video views YOY:

• British Athletics: +456% TikTok growth

• British Cycling: +161% Instagram

• British Rowing: x94 TikTok growth

• British Triathlon: +239% YOY

• British Equestrian: +187% YOY

Takeaway: These sports benefit from accessible, aesthetic, behind-the-scenes training content.

6. Netball, Boxing, Golf

The report doesn’t highlight these in the same depth, but several key patterns emerge:

• Netball and Boxing see strong interest around moments, celebrations, locker room content, humorous interactions.

• Golf sees slow but steady climbs, with players using TikTok to show personality (challenge videos, “day in the life”, etc.).

Takeaway: These sports excel when the storytelling is lifestyle- or personality-led.

Overall Cross-Sport Pattern

Athlete-as-creator is the defining trend.

Women’s sport benefits from stars who post authentically and frequently:

• Ilona Maher

• Alisha Lehmann

• Aryna Sabalenka

• Ffion Morgan

• Many Lionesses players

YouTube performs well for structured, longer storytelling.

YouTube’s +55% YOY growth for women’s sports properties comes from:

• Higher upload frequency

• More consistent behind-the-scenes coverage

• Episodic formats

• Vlog-style athlete content

• Extended highlights

Want to discuss how to shape your strategy, talk to us.

🚨 The YouTube Shorts for Sport Playbook

If you weren’t at our Masterclass, you still have a chance to download the Playbook, lots of insights for you for growth

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE PLAYBOOK NOW

You can also be a beta tester (free of charge) for the new feature we have integrated into FullScore to create Shorts from Long-form videos. 

Do you want to test our short-form clipping tool? Join the waiting list!

Watch the latest episode of The Business of YouTube podcast, featuring Paolo Provinciali from LinkedIn.

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