WNBA’s 26th Season Sees Multiple Milestones on ESPN Networks

The 2022 WNBA season scored seven viewership milestones on Disney’s networks, the worldwide leader in sports announced on Tuesday.

The entirety of this season’s games boasted an average of 412,000 viewers, 22% more than last year and the most since 2006. 

• The regular-season slate averaged 372,000 viewers per game, the most since 2008.
• The postseason — which culminated with the Las Vegas Aces’ first franchise championship — averaged 465,000 viewers, the most since 2007. 
• The semifinal and first rounds also had more viewers than previous years. (The Finals likely would have done better if two of the games didn’t compete with NFL Sundays.) 
• The WNBA All-Star game and Draft both averaged significantly more viewers than last year.

Social media impressions on ESPN also saw major growth compared with last year after the network increased its coverage. WNBA Twitter followed suit.

“The 2022 WNBA Season on Disney Networks was a year of monumental growth — and we feel it is just the beginning,” Ashley O’Connor, ESPN’s Senior Director of Programming and Acquisitions, said in a statement.

The network said it will “continue to look for even more ways to elevate and showcase the incredible women of the WNBA” its coverage in future seasons.