The WNBA’s popularity increased significantly in 2024

During the rights negotiations — which led to a $77 billion, 11-year agreement in total — the NBA had pushed to get more money for the WNBA given its rising popularity. During the 2024 WNBA season, 22 regular season game telecasts averaged at least 1 million viewers.

Several individual games broke records for WNBA viewership on ESPN, and this was the most viewed regular season ever for ESPN, with an average of 1.19 million viewers, up 170% from last season, according to the league. The 2024 season featured the seven most-watched WNBA games of all time on ESPN, as well as the top two on ABC.

March 5, 2025 | 5:53 am