WNBA first-year standouts Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever and Angel Reese #5 of the Chicago … [+]
With the WNBA’s regular season and first round of the post season concluded, the league has had a memorable season. Building on steady ratings growth in recent years and the popularity of this year’s Women’s March Madness, attendance, merchandise sales and advertiser interest has been on the upswing. In addition, there is an increase in social media posts and media coverage of league games bolstering the league’s growing popularity.
With a growing array of players becoming household names including the 12-player Olympic gold medal team and first-year phenoms Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, more talent will be entering the league from the college ranks. As a result, the WNBA recently signed a new media rights agreement and will be adding four new franchises in the upcoming years.
Ratings: For the regular season, nationally televised WNBA games averaged 657,000 viewers, the highest audience in 24 seasons. Televised games with Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever averaged 1.18 million viewers compared to 394,000 for all other games. Sports Business Journal reports there were a record 22 games that averaged over one million viewers, 19 of which involved the Indiana Fever. The previous high had been in 1998 when 15 games averaged over one million viewers.
The ratings highlight of the season was the WNBA All-Star game in which the WNBA All-Stars defeated the U.S. Olympic team 117-109. The game aired live on ABC on July 20 (six days prior to the Opening Ceremonies) and averaged a record 3.44 million viewers. By comparison, last season’s All-Star game, another primetime contest, averaged 850,000 viewers.
The most watched regular season game was between the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky with first-year WNBA (and former college) rivals Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. With Chicago defeating Indiana 88-87, the game aired on ESPN on June 23 and averaged 2.35 million, the most watched WNBA game in 23 seasons. The previous week another Indiana-Chicago matchup on CBS averaged 2.25 million viewers.
According to Nielsen, all four networks that televised WNBA games reported strong year-over-year audience increases. ESPN averaged 1.19 million viewers, an increase of +170% from 2023. In 2024 ESPN, ABC and ESPN2 all had televised their highest rated WNBA game of all-time. The eight games televised by CBS averaged a record high 1.1 million viewers, a +86% increase from last season. In its second season of televising WNBA games, Scripps Sports ION delivered an average audience of 670,000, an increase of +133%. NBA TV televised 40 games and averaged 240,000 viewers, its best season in over a decade. The WNBA had a record 54 million unique viewers
With the Indiana Fever qualifying for the post season for the first time in eight years, the WNBA’s ratings surge continued into the opening round of the playoffs. The first four playoff games aired opposite ratings juggernaut NFL. By far and away, the highest rated game of the day was between the Indiana Fever and Connecticut Sun which, despite a lopsided win by Connecticut, averaged 1.84 million viewers on ABC. The WNBA playoff game was the most watched since 2003. By contrast, the three remaining playoff games had averaged 394,000.
The second Indiana-Connecticut playoff game aired on ESPN and averaged 2.5 million viewers. The game was the most watched WNBA postseason game of all-time across ESPN platforms. Sports Media Watch noted it was the most watched WNBA playoff game since Game 2 of the 1999 Western Conference Finals which averaged 2.62 million. With Indiana losing it ended Caitlin Clark’s rookie season. Of note, the nightcap of ESPN’s playoff doubleheader (Minnesota Lynx and Phoenix Mercury) averaged a strong 1.22 million viewers.
Advertisers: Higher ratings and interest attract more advertisers. Ad Age reports the number WNBA advertisers increased by over 60% in 2024. The number of total advertisers is now approaching 150 and include such product categories as automotive, insurance and computer software. There are reports that this season the cost-per-thousand (CPM), the basis for buying advertising time for WNBA games, had tripled. Besides being “sold out” for this year’s postseason, Disney said for the 2025 season upwards of 85% of their commercial inventory has already been sold. Since 2022 Disney’s WNBA ad revenue has increased +641%,
Attendance: Another indicator of the WNBA’s growing popularity this season was record breaking attendance. According to Timeline, in 2024 attendance increased by nearly 50% from 2023. The average attendance was up by percent double-digits for all 12 franchises. Indiana led with an average home attendance of 17,035, at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, a year-over-year increase of 319%. Indiana’s regular season finale in Washington set a league attendance record with 20,711 spectators. Front Office Sports reports the Atlanta Dream, Washington Mystics and defending WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces had all moved games to larger venues when they hosted Indiana.
Merchandise Sales: Another sizable increase was with merchandising sales. In the first half of the 2024 season, there has been an increase in WNBA merchandise of 500%, with sales of players t-shirts and jerseys up 1,000%. The top selling players were rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. Overall, Fanatics reports sales of Clark merchandise rank fifth in sales among all athletes.
Gold medalists A’Ja Wilson (left) and Breanna Stewart (right) of Team USA pose while on the podium … [+]
Top Performances: Caitlin Clark was named the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year. For the season, Clark set several first-year and league records including a single-season assists and most points scored by a first-year player. Clark finished fourth in MVP voting. A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces was unanimously voted WNBA MVP. For Wilson it was the third time she was voted the league’s MVP having previously won in 2020 and 2022. Wilson joins Cynthia Cooper (1997) as the only unanimously selected MVP. Besides winning a gold medal in the Paris Olympics, in the 2024 regular season, Wilson became the first WNBA player to score 1,000 (1,021) points in a regular season. Napheesa Collier of Minnesota, the Defensive Player of the Year was runner-up followed by Breanna Stewart of the New York Liberty.
Daniel Kirschner, CEO of Greenfly says, “The numbers for the WNBA are very impressive, with all teams seeing double-digit increases in attendance, and ratings for broadcast games routinely topping a million viewers. Caitlin Clark joins a great group of established stars, but she also comes in alongside the most watched group of college basketball players in the history of the league, including stars like Angel Reese.”
“The energy and attention around this group of athletes is also a function of how stardom has developed in the NIL era in a way that connects the success of the league with the success of the sport at the college level. Short form content and social media is a big engine of growth among younger fans. It’s notable that Angel Reese arrived in the league on day one with the most Instagram followers of any WNBA player. She now has more than 4 million. To put that in context, that far exceeds 90% of NBA players and all but one MLB player.”
Media Rights: With such household names as Caitlin Clark, A’ja Wilson, Angel Reese among others, growth in ratings, attendance, merchandise sales and advertising revenue, in July, the WNBA announced a new media rights agreement. The league struck an 11-year agreement with Disney, NBC and Amazon Prime at a reported $200 million a year ($2.2 billion in total), an increase from the current agreement of $60 million per annum. Beginning in 2026, over 100 regular season games will be televised/streamed nationally. The agreement can be evaluated after three years. All three media partners are also part of the new NBA agreement.
Expansion: The WNBA is also expanding from the current 12 teams. In the past year the league has awarded new franchises to Golden State (called the Valkyries) beginning in 2025. The franchise announced they have over 17,000 season ticket deposits. Toronto and most recently Portland, will join in 2026. The league is also seeking a 16th franchise by 2028 at the latest. The WNBA may also expand the regular season schedule from 40 to 44 games. The last expansion was the Atlanta Dream in 2008.
Nonetheless, despite all the growth and interest, the WNBA has yet to become profitable, the league is expected to lose $50 million this year.
