Volleyball achieved unprecedented viewership in China, garnering over 1.1 billion views across various broadcast and digital channels during the 2025 Women`s World Championship.
- During prime-time, CCTV5 alone attracted more than 500 million viewers, significantly outperforming other major sports events such as the Basketball Men’s Asian Cup (370 million) and the Table Tennis WTT Yokohama (230 million).
- In a groundbreaking initiative, Volleyball World collaborated with 20 Douyin streamers, including former Chinese national players, to deliver tournament content directly to fans. This innovative approach generated an additional 638 million views, engaged over 140 million unique individuals, and triggered nearly 31 million interactions, establishing a new standard for sports fan engagement in the region.
The championship`s appeal extended strongly to Europe, where the gold medal match between Italy and Türkiye on RAI 1 drew nearly 4 million viewers, capturing 33% of the viewing audience.
- This event marked Italy`s fourth-largest live sports broadcast audience in 2025 (excluding football), trailing just behind the Wimbledon final featuring Jannik Sinner.
- Furthermore, volleyball dominated Italian sports broadcasts in August, securing the top three viewership spots ahead of basketball, athletics, and motorsports.
Türkiye also reported record viewership for the World Championships, with over 4.5 million fans tuning in live for the final on TRT 1.
- This impressive figure even surpassed the UEFA Champions League Final broadcast on the same channel, cementing volleyball`s status as a premier sport in Türkiye.
Volleyball World’s own over-the-top (OTT) platform, VBTV, also saw significant traction, accumulating over 7 million views throughout the Championship. The semi-final between Italy and Brazil alone attracted 350,000 viewers, with the final drawing 250,000, highlighting the strong global demand for high-quality volleyball content beyond conventional television.
Officials emphasized that the 2025 Women`s World Championship undeniably showcased volleyball`s universal appeal, with fans across continents embracing the tournament`s excitement and drama. This success highlights a deepening connection between the sport and its global audience, with expectations for continued growth driven by development initiatives. It was also noted that the event set a new benchmark for sports delivery by combining top-tier broadcast production with innovative digital storytelling and streamer collaborations, fostering not just audiences, but vibrant communities dedicated to the sport.
These recent records follow a highly successful month for volleyball, including the VNL (Volleyball Nations League), which achieved the highest ratings on Polsat Sport in Poland in over 25 years (for the A4+ demographic) and attracted millions of new viewers globally.
Oliver Wrenwick 
Finley Blackwood