WNBA Finals Game 5 Records Highest Ratings This Century
The 2024 WNBA season will stand the test of time for a number of reasons. So it was only fitting that the deciding Game 5 between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx did huge ratings for the league.
The contest, which went to overtime following a controversial ending to regulation, drew 2.15 million viewers on ESPN. That was enough to make it the most watched Finals contest in 25 years, thus making it the most watched game of the championship series this century, per Sports Media Watch.
What makes that number even more impressive is that it came head-to-head against the NFL and the MLB playoffs on Sunday night.
Clinching Game 5 of Liberty-Lynx WNBA Finals drew 2.15 million viewers on Sunday night on ESPN (up against NFL, MLB)
— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) October 22, 2024
🔲 Outside top 10 WNBA games all-time
🔲 ESPN's 2nd-best playoff game ever (behind 2.5M for 2024 Fever-Sun 1st round Game 2)
🔲 ESPN's best WNBA Finals game ever
To add further context, it was actually the second highest rated WNBA Playoff game overall, as Caitlin Clark's final contest with the Indiana Fever drew 2.5 million viewers for their loss to the Connecticut Sun.
Which only emphasizes the point that the successful growth of the league has been two-fold this season. First, Clark brought in tons of new eyeballs and routinely generated the largest audience. Second, many new fans gravitated to the rest of the WNBA as well, since numbers without Clark and the Fever were also way up year-to-year. Both being incredibly positive stories of course.
Top 5 Most watched Matches of 2024 WNBA season (M)
— OffSeason Swag (@socorooopova) October 22, 2024
Fever vs Sun ( R1G2) 2.5
Fever vs Sky (23/06) 2.3
Fever vs Sky (16/06) 2.25
Fever vs Storm (18/8) 2.23
Liberty vs Lynx (FG5) 2.15
(additionally one more match crossed 2M Fever vs Sun 14/5)
What a season this has been!!#WNBA
The huge jump in interest was also probably a part of the impetus for the WNBA Players Association to opt out of the CBA, since the business of the league will likely forever be transformed by the success of this season.
With all of the above emphatically displaying why women's basketball will be viewed in a whole new way going forward.
Robin Lundberg is a media veteran and hoops head who has spent the bulk of his career with iconic brands like Sports Illustrated and ESPN. His insights have also been featured on platforms such as Fox and CNN and he can currently be heard hosting shows for Sirius XM and on his burgeoning YouTube show. And now he brings his basketball expertise to Women's Fastbreak on SI!