Records are made to be broken, the saying goes.

If so, 2023 ought to go down as a record-breaking year for breaking records. The shattering happened not only on the courts, marathon courses and racetracks, but off the fields and around the game.

The Formula 1 driving maestro Max Verstappen won all but three of the season’s 22 grands prix, Lionel Messi ignited M.L.S. and Jenni Hermoso, after leading Spain to the Women’s World Cup title, set the record straight: She said she did not want to be kissed by the Spanish federation’s president in the trophy ceremony.

From these 2023 headliners, the fans followed, bearing out in record attendance and viewership numbers and record-high broadcast deals.

Nowhere was this progress more apparent than in women’s sports. More than 92,000 fans filled the University of Nebraska’s football stadium to watch a women’s collegiate volleyball match, setting a global mark for the largest attendance at any women’s sporting event.

The 64 Women’s World Cup matches in Australia and New Zealand drew a record 1,997,824 fans for an average of about 31,000 per game, nearly 10,000 more than the average attendance at the matches in the 2019 tournament in France. And the women’s International Cricket Council’s T20 World Cup in South Africa became the most-watched women’s cricket event, with 192 million hours of viewership.

Will these blockbuster events result in more fans filling the stands consistently?