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The WNBA’s surprising decision to reschedule Game 6 of the Finals to a Thursday afternoon may have major implications for its TV viewership numbers.
On Monday, the WNBA moved up the start time of Thursday’s Game 6 in Atlanta from 8 p.m. ET to 12:30 p.m., allowing the Dream to host the game at the 17,000-seat State Farm Arena rather than the 3,500-seat Gateway Center. The Dream had a scheduling conflict with a Hawks regular-season game at State Farm Arena on Thursday night.
The Valkyries lead the WNBA Finals, 3–2, and could clinch the title in Game 6—a game that will tip off at 9:30 a.m. PT in the Bay Area.
The first three Finals games have averaged about 1.7 million viewers, which is on track to be the most-watched WNBA Finals, beating out the 1.5 million in 2024 (viewership for Games 4 and 5 has yet to be announced). But that number could take a hit following a move to a daytime slot for a possible closeout Game 6, which will air on USA Network and stream on Peacock.
Total TV audience at the 12 p.m. hour so far this month is 44.3 million, about 40% of the 106.2 million at 8 p.m., Nielsen tells Front Office Sports.
One source familiar with TV ratings tells FOS that it’s unprecedented for a Finals game to move to a daytime slot, and data suggests moving a championship-level event from primetime to midday can cut about 40% to 60% of viewing audiences. The closest comparison to a major matinee U.S. event is the first few days of March Madness, but the dates of the tournament are announced well in advance.
Last week, the NBA made the unusual decision to open its regular season with a matinee game: a 3 p.m. tipoff between the Pistons and Celtics on NBC and Peacock. The game drew 2.5 million viewers, compared to 7.7 million for the 7 p.m. game between the Knicks and Sixers, and 4.8 million for the 9:30 p.m. Spurs–Thunder game (all numbers based on Nielsen Big Data + Panel and Adobe Analytics).
While midday games aren’t uncommon in sports, they’re normally played on weekends. There were only a handful of weekday morning games in the WNBA this year, and those were the annual Camp Day games that cater to kids who come to the arenas, not national TV audiences.
John Kosner, head of Kosner Media and former longtime ESPN executive, told FOS that he still expects a “healthy” viewership number for Game 6, but not one that would match a primetime game.
“There’s so much discussion about this game and this series, and you have a set of fans who really care about it,” Kosner said. But he added that he doesn’t expect the audience to be “equivalent of playing at 8 p.m. on a Thursday night.”
Kosner also said that matinee regular-season games may start to become the norm. He called that NBA’s opening day move “visionary,” saying that there’s less competition in that period for live programming.
“That’s time on the calendar that’s fairly fallow right now,” Kosner said. “But I’m not saying you put your championship game on a weekday afternoon.”
Additional Revenue
While the impact on Game 6 viewership may be significant, the league’s decision may also bring some added revenue.
The WNBA receives 20% of gate receipts for the WNBA Finals capped at $500,000, according to Sports Business Journal. The Dream confirmed to FOS that they have already sold out tickets for Game 6.
While the extra 13,500 seats at State Farm Arena compared to Gateway Center may not hit the $500,000 cap, the WNBA—and the Dream—are guaranteed a hefty payday for the move. Assuming a conservative $100 average ticket price (TicketData has the current resale get-in price at $89), the extra seats would bring in an additional $1.35 million in revenue for the Dream and WNBA to share.
Meanwhile, the league may be less concerned about viewership numbers for a single game, considering it’s already locked in more than $3 billion on its 11-year media rights deal that started this season.
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