There’s no need to worry about USWNT viewership being down, yet. The news regarding the USMNT’s TV ratings as last year came to a close was positive. As they returned to the World Cup, this was not shocking. At the World Cup, playing four games typically increases viewership. Unfortunately, the news about TV ratings was not as encouraging for the USWNT. When compared to the previous year, those figures were 10% lower. There are numerous reasons for it, though.
No Spanish Language numbers this year
With so many individuals from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Argentina, Cuba, and other countries living in the US, Spanish-language TV is one of the most underutilized resources for US national team viewers. While Spanish-language viewership statistics may be easy to come by for the USMNT, they appear to be scarce for the WNT. In truth, there is no Spanish language audience data for any USWNT games in 2022. This follows the fact that in both 2020 and 2021, there were only three such numbers available.
Mixed Signals in 2022
In 2022, the USWNT played 13 games, averaging 362,692 viewers per match. From 401,913 viewers per game in 2021, that is a 10% decrease. Additionally, it is 92% less than the MNT’s annual average of 4,467,167. However, it is an increase of 20% from the same year in the previous cycle (2018, when they had 19 games and averaged 302,421 viewers per game). And it’s likely to increase further at the Women’s World Cup this year.
Poor placement of games
The USWNT played 18 games in 2022, despite the fact that there were only 13 games with audience statistics. The Women’s World Cup Qualifying Tournament consisted of the 5 missing games. The competition was played in Mexico this time around, as opposed to the US for its first two iterations. The games were consequently broadcast on CBS Sports Network. There are no audience statistics available for those games because the channel is not monitored by Nielsen.
Rox and Ken discuss the USWNT viewership numbers for 2022 and talk about why they aren’t anything to be concerned about yet.
Available USWNT viewership numbers for 2022
| Opponent | Event | Channel | Viewership |
| Czech Republic | She Believes Cup | ESPN | 215,000 |
| New Zealand | She Believes Cup | ABC | 648,000 |
| Iceland | She Believes Cup | ESPN2 | 295,000 |
| Uzbekistan | Friendly | FOX | 438,000 |
| Uzbekistan | Friendly | ESPN2 | 165,000 |
| Colombia | Friendly | FS1 | 259,000 |
| Colombia | Friendly | ESPN | 316,000 |
| Nigeria | Friendly | FOX | 474,000 |
| Nigeria | Friendly | ESPN2 | 336,000 |
| England | Friendly | FOX | 726,000 |
| Spain | Friendly | ESPN2 | 183,000 |
| Germany | Friendly | FS1 | 323,000 |
| Germany | Friendly | ESPN | 337,000 |
