Getting rare primetime exposure on ESPN’s flagship network, the WNBA turned in its largest audience in four years.
Tuesday’s Sky-Mercury WNBA Finals Game 2 averaged 789,000 viewers on ESPN, marking the league’s largest audience — regular season, playoffs or All-Star Game — since the deciding Game 5 of the 2017 finals (Sparks-Lynx: 902K). The previous high this season was 755,000 for a Storm-Sky regular season game on ABC in August.
Phoenix’s overtime win ranks as the most-watched non-clinching Finals game since Game 4 of Shock-Monarchs in 2006 (793K). Viewership jumped 95% from last year’s Game 2 — an afternoon game on ABC that aired opposite the NFL (Aces-Storm: 405K) — and 58% from 2019 (Sun-Mystics: 499K).
The last time Phoenix played Chicago in the finals, Game 2 viewership was a similarly-elevated 763,000.
On a night without competing baseball playoff games, Game 2 ranked second among all sportscasts behind TNT’s NHL regular season debut (Rangers-Capitals: 817K). Keep in mind it did not get much of a lead-in from the preceding Mavericks-Hornets NBA preseason game (509K), an outrageous blowout in which Dallas at one point led by 70 points.
Sunday’s series opener averaged a 0.28 rating and 456,000 viewers on ABC, marking the largest Game 1 audience since 2017 (Sparks-Lynx: 0.39, 566K). Game 1 aired on cable from 2018-20. Ratings and viewership increased a third from last year’s Friday night Game 1 on ESPN2 (0.21, 344K).
In other action, last Friday’s Mercury-Aces semifinal Game 5 averaged a 0.17 and 297,000 on ESPN2 — up 42% from last year’s semifinal Game 5, which faced a presidential debate (Sun-Aces: 209K).
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 10.14]