Leagues

WNBA Semifinals Open With 1.15M Viewers, Up 10%

The WNBA is coming off a record-setting first round where it averaged 1.3 million viewers across 10 games.

Oct 07, 2026 | 01:02 pm

Brett Davis-Imagn Images

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The WNBA semifinals averaged 1.15 million viewers for its two opening games Sunday, up 10% compared to the two first games of last year’s semifinals. Both games were against the NFL’s Week 4 Sunday slate.

The Dream and Liberty drew 1.17 million viewers on ABC, a game that started at 2 p.m. ET, an hour into the first set of NFL games.

The Aces and Valkyries at 4 p.m. ET drew 1.12 million viewers on NBC and Peacock. Aces–Valkyries was the first WNBA playoff game on the network since 2002 after acquiring rights to WNBA games as a part of the league’s new media rights deal worth more than $3 billion.

Here is the accurate viewership number for the WNBA semis Game 1s: 1.15M avg. for two games, up 10% vs. last year.

1.17M for Liberty–Dream on ABC
1.12M for Aces–Valkyries on NBC/Peacock

Last year:
1.4M for Aces–Fever on ABC
716,000 for Mercury–Lynx on ESPN https://t.co/Iulwcree2Q
— Colin Salao (@colincsalao) October 7, 2026

ESPN had the rights to all WNBA playoff games last year, and the two semifinal Game 1s averaged about 1.05 million viewers.

That doubleheader led with the Aces and Fever, which drew 1.4 million viewers on ABC. The game, which tipped off at 3 p.m. ET, was up against an NFL’s Sunday slate. Indiana was missing Caitlin Clark due to injury, but it was still the most-watched WNBA semis opener. This year’s semifinal Game 1s are second and third.

The Lynx and Mercury matchup that followed at 5 p.m. ET drew 716,000 for their semifinal opener, though the game aired on ESPN, not on broadcast TV.

The semis viewership boost comes after the WNBA set a record for its most-watched first-round ever.

The league averaged 1.3 million viewers across 10 first-round games on ESPN, Prime Video, and USA Network, up 37% compared to last year. The previous record was 1.1 million across eight games in 2024, which was Clark’s playoff debut.

Fever games still drew the most fans during this year’s first round, including 2.3 million Thursday for the do-or-die game Game 3 against the Aces on USA Network, the second-most-watched first-round game ever. The most-watched first-round game was Game 2 of the Fever’s 2024 first-round series against the Sun, which drew 2.5 million viewers.

This year’s first round marked the postseason return for Clark, as well as the playoff debut of several other young WNBA stars, including Angel Reese, Olivia Miles, and Paige Bueckers.