As the WNBA season resumes after a month-long break for the Olympic Games, here is a look back at the league’s run of viewership milestones during the first half of its season.
Each WNBA broadcaster has at least doubled its viewership through the first half of the season, which concluded on July 17:
- ESPN/ABC is averaging 1.25 million viewers through 20 games, up 163% from the same point last season (474K).
- CBS is averaging 1.23 million (five games), up 107% from the comparable point last year, when it carried two fewer windows.
- Scripps’ ION is averaging 579,000 for its package of Friday night games, up 109% from last year’s 277,000.
- NBA TV is averaging 214,000 viewers, up four-fold from last year’s average of 51,000.
The WNBA All-Star Game posted the largest audience of the first half with 3.44 million viewers on ABC, the largest WNBA audience of any kind since the league’s opening weekend of play in 1997. (That figure is not included in ESPN’s season-to-date average.)
Including the WNBA Draft, it was the 18th WNBA telecast to average at least one million viewers — the most in any season. Among traditional games only, 16 have topped the million viewer mark this season, still a league record.
Overall, nearly one fifth of all WNBA telecasts to hit the million viewer mark took place just in the first half of this season.
WNBA games per season with one million viewers
The catalyst for the historic growth this season is Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark, who after guiding Iowa to the three largest women’s college basketball audiences on record — 12.3, 14.4 and 18.9 million respectively for the Hawkeyes’ regional final, national semifinal and national championship appearance — has played in all-but-two of the million viewer games this season.
Clark is by far the biggest draw in the league, and one of the single biggest drivers of viewership in all of sports. With that said, it is not a coincidence that the top four audiences this season — the All-Star Game, Draft, and two Fever-Sky games — also included Sky rookie Angel Reese. (One might analogize to the NBA of the 1990s, wherein Michael Jordan was by far the biggest star in the sport, but drew especially well when paired with the Knicks or Charles Barkley.)
WNBA telecasts with at least one million viewers this season
The sharp viewership growth has not necessarily corresponded with a similar increase in advertising revenue. According to the advertising tracking company EDO, WNBA games generated an estimated $13.9 million in advertising spend during the first half — up 18% from last year ($11.8M) and up 65% from 2022 ($8.4M). That does not include the All-Star Game, which by itself generated an estimated $1.3 million.
A look ahead at the second half
The second half of the WNBA season figures to put the strong start to the test. The league might have some momentum coming off of Sunday’s United States-France Olympic gold medal game, which averaged 7.8 million viewers, but Olympic viewership has rarely carried over into WNBA games. With Caitlin Clark having not played in three weeks, there may be pent up interest in her return to the court Friday against the Mercury. Alternatively, three weeks out of the spotlight may have cooled interest somewhat.
The biggest challenge for the league as the season resumes is the start of football competition and a corresponding decline in national games. CBS has three games left, including two on Saturday, and ESPN/ABC has only four. Clark has only one game left across those two broadcasters, a matchup against Seattle on ABC this Sunday.
With the WNBA Playoffs airing exclusively on the ESPN networks — that will change in the new media rights deals that begin in 2026 — the league will again have to work around ESPN’s NFL and Major League Baseball commitments. More-than-half of the maximum 27 WNBA playoff games are set for ESPN2 (13) or ESPNU (2). The ESPN flagship and ABC have the complete WNBA Finals. The full WNBA playoff schedule is here.
