As the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) playoffs approach, a new wave of rookie talent has injected excitement and anticipation into a highly awaited postseason.
The hype surrounding the 2024 WNBA playoffs is unlike any in recent memory, with several fresh faces making their mark on the league this season. The two names that immediately come to mind are the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky. The pair will battle for the Rookie of the Year Award, with the former leading the league in the assists per game category while the latter tops the rebounds per game leaderboard. Both players have broken multiple league records in these categories.
Clark and Reese brought notoriety with them to the WNBA. They first met in the 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship, garnering 9.9 million viewers on ABC and ESPN2. The two also matched up one year later in the Elite Eight of March’s marquee collegiate tournament, and the game was watched by 12.3 million viewers, according to ESPN.
Clark’s performances during March Madness in the last two seasons significantly helped in bringing in an estimated 18.9 million viewers to this year’s national championship matchup between South Carolina and Iowa on ABC and ESPN - nearly four million more than the men’s championship, which drew 14.8 million viewers. This marked the first time in NCAA Tournament history that the viewership of the women’s championship game exceeded that of the men’s. Also, viewership for the women’s final peaked at 24.1 million during the game’s final minutes - the largest in women’s college basketball history and the most-watched basketball game at any level since 2019, per Nielsen.
More recently, their clash in the WNBA on June 16 drew an average viewership of 2.252 million on CBS Sports, making it the league’s most-watched game on any network in 23 years.
It was clear that Clark’s ability to consistently showcase captivating displays of skill would ensure that the viewership numbers she amassed during her college career would carry over into her professional one. It’s hard to argue that Clark is not the primary reason for the WNBA’s exponential uptick in popularity, although all metrics were starting to point in the league’s favour in the half-decade before her arrival.
The Opening Night matchup featuring the Indiana Fever and the Connecticut Sun on May 14 averaged 2.12 million viewers across ESPN2, ESPN+ and Disney+, making it the most-watched WNBA game on Disney platforms ever, according to the WNBA. Moreover, as per ESPN, the 2024 regular season was the most-viewed regular season ever across ESPN’s various platforms, with games averaging 1.2 million viewers - a 170% increase from 2023.
Shows covering the sport are also enjoying astronomical growth. As referenced by ESPN, WNBA Countdown experienced a 113% increase from 2023, with over half a million viewers regularly tuning in to the pregame show. In addition, the league is setting records for attendance, ticket sales, merchandise sales, social media engagement, League Pass subscriptions, and app downloads, per the WNBA. For instance, in June, the WNBA’s online merchandise store already set a single-season sales record, with sales up 756% compared to last year.
In May, WNBA League Pass subscriptions increased by 335 per cent from last year, while the organization’s social channels accumulated 380 per cent more viewers through the first week of the season than the previous year.
The Fever broke the WNBA record for home attendance in a season. According to a recent social media post from the team, over 300,000 fans attended games at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in 2024. To put the team’s explosive growth in perspective, the Fever averaged 4,067 fans per game in 2023. In 2024, they drew an average of 17,000 fans per game, cited by Sports Illustrated.
It’s not just the Fever. Every team has experienced an increase in attendance from 2023 to 2024, with six of the 12 teams attracting more than 10,000 fans per night - a significant improvement from last year, when no team achieved this milestone, according to Across the Timeline.
The WNBA playoffs commence on Sunday, September 22. The last regular-season games will be played on September 19, with October 20 being the last possible date for the final series. According to oddsmakers, the New York Liberty is the current favourite to win the WNBA Championship, having secured the number one seed for this year’s playoffs. The Las Vegas Aces, led by the 2023 Defensive Player of the Year and likely the 2024 Most Valuable Player of the Year, A’ja Wilson, are looking to complete a rare three-peat after defeating the Liberty in four games in the 2023 WNBA Finals, and the Connecticut Sun in 2022. The now-defunct Houston Comets are the only team in league history to win three or more championships in a row.
The 2023 WNBA postseason on ESPN platforms averaged 470,000 viewers, making it the most-watched playoffs in 16 years. With the league riding the momentum of Clark and its 2024 success, that number is only expected to increase exponentially during this season’s playoffs. Whether we see Clark carry her squad to an unprecedented championship run or the Aces cement their dynasty, one thing is certain: the WNBA is the real winner.
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