The penultimate game of the NCAA Women’s College World Series easily topped the night of sports television on June 5.
Game 1 of the Women’s College World Series Final (Oklahoma-Texas) averaged 1.91 million viewers on ESPN, marking the largest audience on record for Game 1 of the Final and the most-watched WCWS game overall in three years.
The Sooners’ win, which peaked with 2.1 million viewers, increased 43% from their Game 1 win over Florida State last year (1.34M) and 35% from their previous Game 1 against Texas in 2022 (1.41M).
Oklahoma-Texas was easily the most-watched sporting event on a day light with competition. A Mexico-Uruguay men’s soccer friendly on Univision placed second at a 0.5 and 1.10 million and nothing else cracked the 400,000 mark. The Alexander Zverev-Alex de Minaur French Open men’s quarterfinal placed third with 370,000 on Tennis Channel, and the opening night of the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships placed third with 340,000 on ESPN2. Viewership for the latter more-than-doubled the same night last year (152K).
Returning to the French Open, the Maria Andreeva-Aryna Sabalenka quarterfinal drew 311,000 and Jasmine Paolini-Elena Rybakina 215,000. (The fourth quarterfinal was not played after Novak Djokovic withdrew from the tournament.)
Further down the dial, a primetime Major League Baseball regional window drew 284,000 on MLB Network, comfortably ahead of the Padres-Angels game on FS1 later in the night. In the WNBA, an Aces-Wings regular season game drew 174,000 on NBA TV.
Wednesday, June 5 sports ratings
Updated chart:
Original chart below:
