Wednesday November 29, 2023

Through Three Games, WNBA Finals Sets 20-Year Viewership High

  • The Liberty-Aces series is averaging 673,000 viewers across ABC and ESPN, the most-watched Finals in 20 years.
  • Sunday’s 87-73 win for New York over Las Vegas averaged 659,000 viewers — the most-watched Game 3 in 18 years.
New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu (20) waves to the crowd against the Las Vegas Aces during game three of the 2023 WNBA Finals at Barclays Center.
Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports
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The New York Liberty and WNBA Finals viewership both rebounded in Game 3.

Sunday’s 87-73 win for New York over the Las Vegas Aces averaged 659,000 viewers — making it the most-watched Finals Game 3 in 18 years and a 14% increase over 2022’s comparable contest. The contest peaked with 945,000 viewers at 5 p.m. ET.

Interestingly, the WNBA Finals have performed better on Sundays while competing against the NFL rather than on a weeknight: Game 1 of the series garnered 729,000 average viewers, while Game 2 last Wednesday averaged just 626,000.

Overall, though, the WNBA Finals are doing quite well viewership-wise: Through three games, the series is averaging 673,000 viewers across ABC and ESPN — the most-watched Finals through Game 3 in 20 years and a 13% increase from 2022.

The WNBA and the Liberty experienced another win on Sunday as well. With 17,143 attending the game at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, New York reported a league record for gate receipt (specific revenue numbers were not reported). 

Ahead of the series, ticket prices on the secondary market were some of the highest in WNBA history, with Game 3 in particular being one of the best-selling games on record at ticket marketplace StubHub.

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