Over the past few years, the growth in viewership and fan base in women’s sports has been nothing short of remarkable, and is forecast to continue at the 2024 Olympics. While the “Caitlin Clark effect” on domestic viewership in women’s sports has received a lot of attention, her absence at the 2024 Games underscores an important truth: Not only has the growth in viewership and fan base in women’s sports continued to increase each year, but that growth has remained consistent.

So, attributing the increase in viewership and fan base in women’s sports to one player (and one sport) does a disservice to all the incredible and entertaining female athletes in the U.S. and abroad. These claims discredit and foolishly overlook the dominance of athletes like Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, Sunisa Lee, Sha’Carri Richardson, Mallory Swanson, and A’ja Wilson; while also mistakenly forgetting the team dominance of U.S. women’s soccer and basketball. So the viewership numbers for the 2024 Games are not surprising at all, and there were plenty of female athletes to be happy about, even if Caitlin Clark didn’t make it.

Spectator numbers at the Women’s Olympic Games

Although women’s basketball has attracted more and more attention domestically in recent years, the Olympics provide an opportunity to celebrate thousands of talented female athletes in a variety of sports, and the viewership numbers show that people have seized that opportunity. Here are the key viewership numbers for the 2024 Games:

• 35 million viewers tuned in to NBC on August 3 to see Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky and Sha’Carri Richardson win medals.
• 4.2 million viewers watched the US women’s soccer team’s game against Germany (July 28) and 3.0 million viewers tuned in to the US women’s soccer team’s game against Japan (August 3).
• 32 million viewers watched Simone Biles and Suni Lee win gold and bronze medals in gymnastics.
• 34.7 million watched the US women’s national gymnastics team win the gold medal.
• The women’s soccer gold medal game between the United States and Brazil averaged 9 million viewers – the highest viewership for a women’s soccer gold medal game since 2004.
• The women’s basketball gold medal match between the USA and France reached its peak with 10.9 million viewers.

These viewership numbers for the 2024 Games prove right advocates who have long cited the steady rise in fans as a rationale for increased investment in broadcasting and overall funding for women’s sports, although they face outdated views that downplay the role of consistent marketing and advertising in this growth trend. As a result, the 2024 Olympics should silence any remaining skeptics and prove that the momentum behind women’s sports is not just a trend, but a strong and enduring force. As Klarna and TOGETHXR so aptly put it, this is a movement, not just a moment.

Dominance of US women

For Team USA, it was the female athletes who dominated the podium and the medal count, taking home 26 of Team USA’s 40 gold medals and 57% of Team USA’s 126 total medals in Paris. The 26 gold medals were the most won by a women’s team at a single Olympic Games. Their performance dominance was clearly evident as the Team USA women took home gold in soccer, swimming, gymnastics, track and field, rugby and basketball.

In swimming, Katie Ledecky made history in Paris, winning her 14th Olympic medal and becoming the most successful American woman in Olympic history. Ledecky has now won nine gold medals, only Michael Phelps has won more. Ledecky also broke her own Olympic record in the 1500m freestyle and became the first woman to win four gold medals in the 400m freestyle. Alongside her, Regan Smith, Lilly King, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske set a new world record in the 4x100m medley relay, while Smith also won silver in the 200m butterfly.

The team dominated by securing its fifth Olympic gold medal with a 1-0 victory over Brazil and the women’s basketball team remained undefeated at the Olympics (61-0) as it defeated France to win its 8th consecutive gold medal. In women’s gymnastics, the team captured its fourth gold medal and Simone Biles made history as the most successful Olympic gymnast. The women’s rugby team had a historic run as it captured a bronze medal in a victory over Australia, the program’s first-ever Olympic medal. In track and field, the U.S. women won gold in both the 4×100 and 4×400 relay.