The WNBA's meteoric rise in popularity, in one chart

The WNBA’s new season is off to a meteoric start, in just one sign of the momentum women’s sports currently have.

In the first five WNBA games that have aired on ESPN, average viewership topped 1 million people and surpassed last year’s average by 226 percent, reports the AP’s Doug Feinberg. In-person audiences are up 14 percent compared to last year as well, Feinberg adds. And the league’s app downloads have similarly skyrocketed, growing 146 percent.

The WNBA’s success is due in part to a first-year class full of college sports phenoms like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Cameron Brink who brought unprecedented attention to college women’s basketball during this year’s NCAA tournament and set new records for scoring and viewership during their undergraduate careers. When these athletes were recently drafted to the WNBA, their many fans followed them, boosting ticket and merchandise sales as well as TV ratings.

Clark’s debut game for the Indiana Fever, for instance, brought in 2.1 million viewers, the most of any WNBA game on ESPN platforms, according to the network. And the stars are bringing in the next generation of fans as well: Notably, one of the biggest ratings increases the WNBA has seen is from girls between the ages of 12 to 17.


https://www.vox.com/culture/352067/the-wnbas-meteoric-rise-in-popularity-in-one-chart