WNBA Announces Record TV Ratings, Highest Attendance in 26 Years

Karl Rasmussen | Jun 10, 2024

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) smiles as she heads down court after a three against the Los Angeles Sparks. / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Business is booming in the WNBA, largely thanks to the highly coveted rookie class headlined by the likes of Caitlin Clark, Cameron Brink and Angel Reese, among others.

With the first month of the 2024 season officially past, the league announced its TV ratings and attendance details for the month of May. It comes as no surprise that both are up massively compared to last year, with TV ratings reaching all-time highs and attendance at its highest mark in 26 years.

The league reported that approximately 400,000 fans attended WNBA games in May, the most the league has recorded since 1998. More than half of the league's games have resulted in sellouts, an increase of 156% over last season.

In terms of television viewership, the league noted that WNBA games have logged an average viewership of 1.32 million viewers per game across ESPN, ESPN 2, ABC and CBS. That figure is almost three times more than last season.

The season-opening matchup between Clark's Indiana Fever and the Connecticut Sun recorded an average of 2.12 million viewers on ESPN 2, ESPN+ and Disney+, making it the most-watched WNBA game on any Disney platform in history.

Six days later, the Fever's rematch against the Sun on ESPN drew the largest TV audience for any WNBA game on the network with an average of 1.56 millions viewers.

Furthermore, merchandise sales have skyrocketed. The WNBA reports that the WNBAstore website has received a staggering increase in transactions of more than 756% compared to this time last year.