The WNBA’s new season is off to a meteoric start, just one sign of the momentum women’s sports are currently experiencing.
In the first five WNBA games broadcast on ESPN, average viewership topped 1 million people and exceeded last year’s average by 226 percent, reports AP’s Doug Feinberg. Individual audiences are up 14 percent over last year, Feinberg added. And the league’s app downloads have likewise skyrocketed, increasing by 146 percent.
The WNBA’s success is due to a first-year class full of college sports stars such as Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Cameron Brink who brought unprecedented attention to college women’s basketball in this year’s NCAA Tournament and set new records for scoring and attendance. their graduate careers. When these athletes were recently drafted into the WNBA, many fans followed them, boosting ticket and merchandise sales as well as TV ratings.
Clarke’s first game for the Indiana Fever, for example, drew 2.1 million viewers, the most of any WNBA game on the ESPN platform. according to the network. And the stars are also bringing in the next generation of fans: notably, One of the biggest ratings increases The WNBA sees girls ages 12 to 17.
These gains build on the league’s steady growth over the past few years. as Sportsnut reports, WNBA ratings have been on the rise since 2021, driven by the expanding fanbase of powerhouse teams like the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty. In 2023, the WNBA also had the highest number of total unique viewers In more than a decade.
The WNBA is also working to drive interest by making long-term investments in the league. Recently announced the launch of new teams in the league Bay Area and Toronto, which will bring the number of active teams up to 14. The yet-to-be-named team from the Golden State Valkyries and Toronto marks the WNBA’s first expansion of its league since 2008 and signals new opportunities to reach people. This will mean more players, new rivalries and more storylines to follow for years to come.
“Last year, we had a peak in attendance, peak in sales and peak in tickets, and it shows how dedicated people are to this game,” Washington Mystics center Shakira Austin. told NBC News. “I think we’re just going to continue to improve and, you know, hopefully our league is going to be able to, you know, back it up and be ready for the attention that we’re going to get.”
Such successes are part of a larger growth in women’s sports, including major expansions in soccer, volleyball and hockey. Collectively, this interest highlights the big business of women’s sports and the appetite of fans for these events.
Demand for women’s sports is increasing
As Axios reports, The United Soccer League Super League, a new women’s soccer league that already has eight franchises across the country, will play Inaugural season This year. A Professional Women’s Hockey League Also launched in 2024 with six teams and a Professional Volleyball Federation Also launched with seven teams.
The new leagues reflect the growing demand for women’s sports. According to NielsenA ratings tracking company reported increased interest and viewership in women’s sports across the collegiate, professional and international levels, indicating strong viewership for these competitions.
This growth has been driven by new fan interest, the rise of stars like Clarke and Reese, as well as prime broadcast placements by television networks. In 2023, National Women’s Soccer Finals and NCAA Women’s Basketball Finals Both aired during primetime on a major network for the first time in years. There has also been support and excitement for women’s sports as there has been a greater commitment to gender equality in various areas, both in terms of pay and representation.
The success and expansion that various leagues are experiencing, Deloitte estimates elite women’s sports As an industry to exceed $1 billion in revenue in 2024, that would represent a 300 percent increase in revenue over 2021.
Increasingly, with sold-out WNBA stadiums showing up, this growth in enthusiasm for women’s sports is becoming natural.
