The WNBA ended its most-watched season in 16 years on a quiet note.
The complete WNBA regular season and playoffs averaged 412,000 viewers across the ESPN family of networks, up 22% from last year and the league’s most-watched season since 2006. That includes an average of 456,000 for the playoffs, also up 22% from last year and the highest average since 2007.
The four-game Las Vegas-Connecticut WNBA Finals averaged 534,000 viewers, down 4% from Chicago-Phoenix last year (559K) but up 19% from Seattle-Las Vegas in a fanless “bubble” two years ago (450K).
The Aces’ win ranks seventh out of the 20 total Finals since ESPN began airing the event exclusively in 2003. The Finals was the only round of the postseason to decline from last year, after viewership rose 50% in the first round and 45% in the semifinals.
Three of the four Finals games aired opposite NFL games, tying 2016 and 2019 as the most in a single title series. Sunday’s clinching Game 4 averaged a 0.22 rating and 396,000 viewers on ESPN, marking the least-watched clinching game of a WNBA Finals since 2013 (Minnesota-Atlanta Game 3: 321K). Last year’s clincher aired in the same Sunday afternoon window on the same network and pulled a 0.25 and north of 400,000. Of the 23 total playoff games this year, Game 4 ranks in the bottom half.
In a similar Sunday afternoon window the previous week, Game 1 of the series drew a healthier 555,000 viewers on broadcast network ABC. This past weekend, ABC’s Sunday afternoon window was occupied by the Premier Lacrosse League title game — which drew less than half of that Game 1 audience (225K) and was comfortably outdrawn head-to-head by Game 4.
WNBA Finals viewership since ESPN acquired exclusive rights
(Nielsen estimates from ESPN PR, ShowBuzz Daily 9.20)
