The WNBA’s 28th season is off to a great start. After an opening month that made headlines everywhere, the W announced Monday that about 400,000 fans attended games in May, the largest attendance in 26 years. The last time so many fans packed the arenas to watch WNBA games was in 1999 and the league was only entering its third season.
The growth of the league in the early season doesn’t stop there. Across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and CBS, WNBA games average 1.32 million viewers, nearly tripling last season’s average of 462,000 viewers. The Fever’s games on May 14 (vs. Connecticut Sun), May 18 (vs. New York Liberty) and May 20 (vs. Sun) all set viewership records for the respective networks as their most-watched WNBA games of all time. The May 14 opening night game averaged 2.12 million viewers on ESPN2, May 18 averaged 1.71 million viewers on ABC and May 20 averaged 1.56 million viewers on ESPN.
“What’s happening now in women’s basketball is confirmation of what we’ve always known: the demand is there and the women’s game is a worthwhile investment,” WNBA Chief Growth Officer Colie Edison said in a news release. “We are encouraged by the growing engagement across our verticals, especially as we welcome new and diverse audiences to our fandom. The WNBA continues to experience continued growth as our league embraces this increased momentum.”
Here are more tidbits about the WNBA’s growth through the first month of the season:
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Merchandise sales are up 236% in the 2023 season, with Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Cameron Brink ranking in the top five for jersey sales during the first week of the season.
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WNBA League Pass subscriptions more than tripled in the first two weeks of the season, with the highest average viewing minutes in league history. The number of League Pass subscriptions for the month of May increased by 335% compared to May 2023.
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WNBA arenas were filled to an average of 94% capacity, up 17% from last year.
