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The WNBA’s rise in popularity seemingly isn’t slowing down.
According to ESPN, this year’s playoffs marked the most-watched WNBA postseason in league history. Across 24 games playoff and Finals games, viewership was up five percent, averaging 1.2 million viewers. The Finals averaged 1.5 million viewers, which is the second-most-watched only to last year’s Finals.
The WNBA has exploded in popularity over the past two seasons. Last year, it recorded the most-watched regular season in 24 years, set a single-game attendance record, had the highest total attendance in 22 years and set several all-time records for digital consumption and merchandise sales, the league announced last September.
With an average of 1.19 million viewers across ESPN platforms, the WNBA saw a 170 percent increase from the 2023 season.
Much of the league’s newfound success can be attributed to the arrival of Caitlin Clark, who broke records at Iowa before putting together a Rookie of the Year campaign, but the 2025 campaign was evidence that the league is popular even when Clark isn’t on the floor.
The Indiana Fever star played just 13 games because of various injuries and missed the entirety of her team’s playoff run.
Clark’s popularity is certainly still a factor in the WNBA’s success, but other stars like A’ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier and more have proved that they’re more than capable of drawing an audience.
With the rise in popularity comes new challenges to tackle, most notably a new collective bargaining agreement.
The league’s current CBA is set to expire on Oct. 31, and commissioner Cathy Engelbert and the WNBA Players Association hope to make the new CBA “transformational.”
With the new CBA, the players are hoping to see an increased percentage of the league’s revenue as it continues to grow.
“The players are still adamant that we get a percentage of revenue that grows with the business, which perhaps includes team revenue, and that’s just a part of the conversation,” WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike told ESPN in August.
If the WNBPA and the league don’t reach a new CBA by Oct. 31, it won’t guarantee a lockout, but several players, including Indiana’s Sophie Cunningham, have insisted that they won’t play if they don’t feel the new agreement gives them what they feel they deserve.
