Serena Williams‘ presence, and an unusual lead-in, lifted the Wimbledon women’s final to a six-year high.
Saturday’s Angelique Kerber-Williams Wimbledon women’s final had a 1.8 rating and 2.70 million viewers, per Nielsen fast-nationals — up 29% in ratings and 32% in viewership from last year (Garbine Muguruza–Venus Williams: 1.4, 2.04M) and up 20% and 22% respectively from 2016 (Serena-Kerber: 1.5, 2.21M).
Williams’ straight-set defeat was the highest rated and most-watched Wimbledon women’s final in six years — since her 2012 win over Agnieszka Radwanska (2.0, 2.8M). Regardless of gender, it was the top Wimbledon singles final since Djokovic-Roger Federer in 2015 (1.9, 2.72M).
This year’s women’s final began two hours later than usual due to the length of the Novak Djokovic–Rafael Nadal men’s semifinal. That match, suspended Friday after three sets, concluded in five sets earlier Saturday morning.
The later timeslot and thrilling lead-in likely contributed to the six-year high.
Since ESPN began airing the Wimbledon singles finals in 2012, Serena Williams has made the women’s final four times. As should be no surprise, those four matches rank as the most-watched women’s finals on the network.
In other action, last Thursday’s women’s semifinals — Williams-Julia Georges and Kerber-Jelena Ostapenko — had 673,000 viewers (-9%). It was the least-watched women’s semifinal day at Wimbledon in at least four years.
Wimbledon Women’s Final Ratings, Viewership
Since ESPN began airing the event
