WNBA has most-watched regular season in 21 years, up 21% over 2022

After a terrific regular season, the2023 WNBA Playoffs tip off tonight. This was a hugeyear for the WNBA, as the league just had its most-watched regularseason in 21 years.

Viewership across its nationaltelevision partners – ABC, CBS, ESPN and ESPN2 – was up 21% overthe 2022 season. The league also set new highs in terms of itsdigital platforms, social-media engagement and sports betting. Hereare some highlights from the 2023 campaign:

• Across ABC, ESPNand CBS, viewership was up 8% over last season and averaged 505,000viewers. The WNBA on ABC averaged 627,000 viewers, making it themost-viewed regular season on ABC in 11 years.

• The 2023 regular season reached over 36million total unique viewers across all national networks, thehighest since 2008 and up 27% from 2022.

• Across all WNBA social-media handles, theleague generated a record 373 million video views this season, up96%from the 2022 season. The 20 million totalactions/engagements and 1.1 million hours watched increased by 65%and 42%, respectively, from last season.

• The 2023 WNBA All-Star Game on ABC was themost-watched WNBA All-Star Game in 16 years, averaging 850,000viewers with a peak of 955,000 viewers.

• The 2023 WNBA Draft averaged 572,000 viewerson ESPN, up 42% over last year; it was the most-watched WNBA Draftsince 2004.

• The league introduced WNBA Friday NightSpotlight with new broadcast partner ION, where regular-seasongames were consumed for a total of 14 million hours.

• The WNBA'sattendance was up 16% compared to last year. The average attendanceof 6,615 fans per game was the highest since 2018. The WNBA had itshighest total attendance in 13 years (1,587,488).

• The 2022 WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces saw thehighest increase in average attendance (more than 66%year-over-year), averaging a league-high 9,551 fans per game. TheAces also hosted the highest-attended game this season, drawing acrowd of 17,406 against the Phoenix Mercury on September 10 on thefinal day of the regular season.

• Mercury All-Star Brittney Griner’s first homegame in her return to the WNBA, against the Chicago Sky on May 21,drew 14,040 fans, third-highest for a WNBA game this season.

• The first WNBA Canada Game, which saw the Skydefeat the Minnesota Lynx 82-74 in a preseason contest, was playedbefore a sold-out crowd of approximately 20,000 fans at ScotiabankArena in Toronto on May 13.

• The WNBA's relaunched app with exclusiveseries, behind-the-scenes content and in-depth coverage sawdownloads up nearly 400%. The league’s out-of-market live gamepackage experienced 10% growth in subscribers this season.

• The season-opening game featuring the NewYork Liberty at the Washington Mystics on May 13 had the highestviewership in WNBA League Pass history, up 107% from the previousrecord-setting game on the platform. Content consumption was upacross digital channels with League Pass total views for the seasonup 257%, and the WNBA website had a 21% increase in average timespent per visit during the regular season.

• On FanDuelSportsbook, the number of bets on the WNBA more than doubled fromlast season. Individual bets on the marketplace increased by morethan 163% year-over-year, and the WNBA handle was up more than100%.

• The WNBA launched theWNBABettab,featuring content from many of the league’s partners, includingFanDuel, ESPN, The Action Network, Rotowire and the American GamingAssociation.

• The 2023 WNBA Commissioner’s Cup ChampionshipGame attracted the largest audience for a WNBA game ever for PrimeVideo, nearly doubling the viewership of last year’s Commissioner’sCup Championship Game. The in-season competition saw the teamscompeting for a prize pool of more than $500,000. As part of thetotal prize pool, Coinbase provided a cryptocurrency bonus of$120,000 for players in the Championship Game.

• The 2023 WNBA season was dedicated to women’shealth advocacy, with a focus on Black, Brown and LGBTQ+communities. Throughout the season, teams, players and the leaguehighlighted four key pillars of women’s health: maternal health,mental health, reproductive health and cancer awareness andeducation. Through the 2023 WNBA Commissioner’s Cup, each WNBA teamchose a local women’s health organization to play for, with$200,000 donated to both local and national non-profitorganizations committed to raising awareness about these importantwomen’s health equity issues.

Why were fans so engaged this season?On the court, there were quite a few unprecedented things thathappened this season:

• The Seattle Storm’s Jewell Loyd set a WNBAsingle-season record with 939 points.

• The New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart had aWNBA-record six games of at least 40 points. In total, WNBA playersproduced a record 13 40-point games, 10 more than the prior recordof three.

• The Connecticut Sun’s Alyssa Thomas posted arecord six triple-doubles and broke the single-season record fortotal assists (316).

• WNBA players recorded a record 13triple-doubles, six more than in 2022 (seven) and four more than inthe league’s first 25 regular seasons combined (nine).

• The Phoenix Mercury’s Diana Taurasi becamethe first player in WNBA history to score 10,000 career points.

• The Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson became thefastest player in WNBA history to reach 3,500 points, 1,500rebounds and 300 blocks.

• New York’s Sabrina Ionescu set records forthree-pointers made in the regular season (128) and points scoredin a single round of the WNBA Three-Point Contest (37).

It's a great time to be a fan of the WNBA, and this postseasonseems to be one of the most highly anticipated WNBA Playoffs ofall-time.