The NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament has completed its first two rounds, and the Sweet 16 is now set. Star players like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Paige Bueckers are expected to shine in the national spotlight and compete for the championship. Using data from SBRnet's Annual Study of Sports Fans, we have analyzed some major trends in women's sports. One of the key takeaways from this analysis is that the 18-24 age group has shown the biggest increase in fan participation in women's sports. Specifically, in 2023, there was a 123.7% increase in 18-24-year-olds attending women's sporting events, which was the highest increase observed among any sport in our dataset. We also see that Women’s Sports and the WNBA are the 2 fastest-growing fan bases in sports, having higher percent increases in fandom than the likes of the NFL, NBA, MLB or any other sport in our study. The Star Power of the women participating in the Women’s tournament are elevating the legitimacy and popularity of women’s sports.

Link:  https://youtu.be/RVwYK4QJYf8
 
Written by:  Bryce Hadley