MLV’s viewership engagement numbers through season championship illustrate power of media partnerships

The GIST: Major League Volleyball (MLV) wrapped its inaugural “Match For A Million” championship on May 9th in front of a sold-out crowd of over 4.5K in Dallas. However, the league has been drawing a much bigger crowd all season long — after reorganizing and rebranding, media rights deals and a strong social push (featuring yours truly) brought volleyball to many more households.

• Let’s review the numbers and what they mean for MLV’s future, as well as the volleyball landscape as a whole. Absolutely killin’ it.

📺 This was the first year postseason and championship games were broadcast across Ion and Scripps Sports. These telecasts reached nearly 3M unique viewers across three matches, with the title game peaking at more than 300K viewers and averaging 200K.

📈 Matches carried on the newly launched Scripps Sports Network FAST channel drove an additional 28% lift in audience consumption.

📱 In the week leading up to the championship, the league generated 8.9M social impressions (a 63% jump YoY) and over 2M video views. This was a nearly 20x increase from the 97K video views in the 2025 postseason.

🤳 Creator collaborations further elevated content to reach new fans. Volleyball star and influencer Jordan Lucas, who was on site to cover the championship, generated 1.7M impressions throughout his coverage of the game.

🏐 Volleyball consumption is growing both at the collegiate and professional level, with more opportunities to watch than ever. These stats drive home what will help emerging volleyball properties stand out: Media partnerships that help them reach broad audiences.

• The GIST was one of the creators amplifying the MLV championship on social media, and scoring a deal with Scripps Sports is a major get for MLV as it gets bigger. Smashing.