The WNBA playoffs are enjoying a boost in year-over-year audience, ESPN announced Thursday. The Finals in that year had an average TV rating on 11.6, in comparison to the rating of 4.0 achieved by the 2020 Finals. 66% of the viewers were male and almost half were African-Americans. Forty-seven years after the passage of Title IX, the WNBA and a host of other professional sports leagues have provided women more opportunities on the field, on the court and in the front office. WNBA attendance is down 3.5% from last season with an average of 6,535 people. The 2020 WNBA Draft was the second-most-watched draft in the league’s history. Viewership increase for WNBA games. Viewership increase for WNBA games The WNBA was up against every major sport this year, including playoffs for the NBA. More people will watch when more people watch. Viewership increase for WNBA games. ESPN and ESPN2 are averaging 224,000 viewers (P2+), up +6% from 2016, and have shown strong gains from viewers 18-49, with a +8% viewership gain from last year (74,200 in 2017). But every year since 2010, the WNBA has crossed 1.3 million fans in total attendance. Viewership is up for the WNBA despite going against every other major sport. The increase in average viewership is significant in that there were more opportunities to do so with games available on TV (ESPN, CBS Sports Network) as well as on Facebook and Twitter streams. The WNBA Finals saw huge year-over-year growth this season. Viewership on NBA League Pass, the league’s live game subscription package, on MLK Day was up 46% vs. last year. Viewership declined 21 percent from last year’s Storm-Mystics sweep (481,000) and 32 percent from the Lynx-Sparks in 2017 (559,000). As the numbers were recorded from the 8 p.m. In-game attendance was stellar and ESPN released viewership ratings earlier today, which proved to be equally commendable. Meanwhile last year’s WNBA championship series averaged 487,000 viewers, with a high of 597,000 for Game 1. Last season, live game attendance dropped 12 percent despite a notable increase in ESPN viewership and WNBA League Pass subscriptions. Viewership is up thanks to a sharp increase in nationally televised games. The one exception has been the WNBA. “The first year or two, sure, there was a lot of sampling and a lot of excitement coming out of the Olympics,” said Rick Welts, president of the N.B.A.’s Golden State Warriors. According to ESPN, its coverage of the Seattle Storm’s championship-clinching win in Game 3 of the Finals was up 34% year-over-year … These numbers were promoted by the league as the highest since 2003 . The Sparks-Lynx game that had Serrano pregame texting ended up including a WNBA milestone.

For Canadian viewership numbers, see the Viewership section of the 2019 NBA Finals. WNBA viewership grew substantially this season, according to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Englebert, who spoke on a conference call with media members Thursday ahead of the start of the WNBA … WNBA regular season viewership was up 7%, with an average of 246,00 people on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC. When a wnba playoff game is bumped to the espn app only in favor of a football game between no-name teams prairie view and nc central, that really says it all. In 2013 ESPN said that their WNBA audience was majority male, as it had been for years. VIEWERSHIP: The 2017 WNBA Finals on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 was the third most-watched WNBA … "On average (we've lost) over $10 million every year … … The WNBA says it has lost significant money the last 22 years, including $12 million last season. Last season, the NFL’s nationally televised games remained close to flat from 2012. 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