The WNBA All-Star Game from Phoenix came out as the most-watched one on Saturday, hitting an all-time high for such an event, with 3.44 million viewers on ABC. This beats the previous record of 1.44 million that was recorded in 2003 with some basketball legends, including Dawn Staley, Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper, Lisa Leslie, and Sue Bird.
The 2022 WNBA All-Star Game on in primetime on ABC last year drew 850,000 viewers. This season’s astonishing improvement at the gate was indicative of an uptick in interest in the WNBA, boosted by a pretty famous rookie class that includes Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever and Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky.
“This weekend’s extraordinary viewership underscores women’s sports’ exponential growth, and ESPN is proud to showcase this incredible league and its exceptional athletes on such a grand stage,” said Julie Sobieski, ESPN senior vice president of league programming and acquisitions, in The Athletic.
Sports Media Watch noted that this All-Star Game was the highest-rated WNBA game since the league’s inaugural week in June 1997. The inaugural game in league history drew 5.04 million viewers, with 3.59 million the next day.
The Athletic also pointed out that the All-Star Game was the 17th WNBA game this season to have more than one million viewers, and Clark played in 15 of those. In fact, in the last 16 years no WNBA game had reached more than one million viewers.
As the WNBA continues to gain popularity and includes some incredibly talented players, this year’s WNBA had a record number of viewers and game attendees, which is huge for the league.
