WNBA Midseason Viewership Up 46% on ESPN Platforms

WNBA viewership on ESPN platforms has increased significantly this season compared to last year, averaging 546,000 viewers through 13 games.

The network said on Wednesday that the midseason average is a 46% increase over WNBA viewership on ESPN platforms in 2022. Fellow Disney-owned network ABC has recorded 647,000 average viewers across eight WNBA broadcasts this season, an 18% increase over ABC’s four WNBA broadcasts before the All-Star Game last season. 

The WNBA All-Star Game will be played July 15 at Michelob Ultra Arena, the Las Vegas Aces home. A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Brittney Griner, Aliyah Boston, and Jackie Young were the top-five fan vote-getters for this year’s All-Star Game, which ABC will televise. The exhibition will happen as NBA Summer League games are held in Las Vegas. 

In May, ESPN announced that its Phoenix Mercury-Los Angeles Sparks season-opening broadcast averaged 683,000 viewers with 1 million peak viewers to rank as the most-watched WNBA regular season game on cable television in 24 years and the most-viewed WNBA opening night game on ESPN platforms in 11 years. April’s WNBA Draft on ESPN was the network’s most-viewed WNBA Draft since 2004.

ESPN’s broadcast deal signed with the WNBA in 2016 pays the league about $25 million per season until 2025, when the deal expires. 

“We get zero [in-broadcast] revenue compared to other leagues, and it’s absolute bull—t,” a WNBA ownership source told FOS before this season. “Now, we are in a place where we have to earn [the next deal].”

All 2022 WNBA broadcasts on ESPN networks averaged 412,000 viewers, 22% more than the 2021 season average and the most since 2006.