Liberty-Lynx Game 5 Was Most-Watched WNBA Finals Game of 2000s

The New York Liberty’s Game 5 overtime victory over the Minnesota Lynx pulled in 2.15 million viewers on ESPN, the WNBA’s most-watched Finals game of the 2000s.

The only Finals games that outrank Game 5 were in the first three seasons of the league and aired on NBC, led by Game 3 of the 1999 series between New York and Houston that drew 3.25 million viewers.

Last year’s WNBA Finals were the most watched in decades, but none of the audiences surpassed the one-million mark; no WNBA game had since 2008. That changed this year:

• Game 1: 1.14 million viewers on ESPN
• Game 2: 1.35 million viewers on ABC
• Game 3: 1.39 million viewers on ESPN
• Game 4: 1.67 million viewers on ESPN

The clincher’s viewership came in a challenging time slot, airing at the same time as Sunday Night Football (which got more than 17 million viewers) and the final game of the Mets-Dodgers NLCS (more than six million). Disney also chose to put the game solely on ESPN instead of simulcasting on ABC, which aired the 1993 Halloween movie Hocus Pocus. Representatives for the network did not immediately respond to questions about that decision.

The audience peaked at 3.3 million, according to ESPN.

All five games of the Finals averaged 1.57 million viewers, which is the largest audience the series has ever drawn on ESPN.

Game 5 was the league’s seventh-most-watched this season behind four Indiana Fever games, the draft, and the All-Star Game. Caitlin Clark’s final playoff game last month drew 2.5 million viewers, still the most ever for a WNBA game on cable.

Merch Spike

Fanatics announced Monday that fans broke its 30-day record for apparel celebrating the winner of the WNBA title in under 24 hours. The announcement included a photo of Nike’s ad for the winning team, which featured the Statue of Liberty wearing a championship ring.