The WNBA Finals are off to a good start with the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries.
WNBA ratings are always under the microscope, whether with or without Caitlin Clark. And although this year’s Finals are missing perennial contenders and big names like the Fever, Aces, and Liberty, they do have Angel Reese. And the overall matchup of two teams looking to win their first championship has seen viewers arrive in impressive number.
According to NBC, Game 1 of the WNBA Finals on Saturday scored a record audience of 2.1 million viewers on NBC and Peacock. It’s the most-watched Game 1 of the Finals in league history with an increase of 11% versus last year. The game was the first Finals contest on NBC since 2002. If you want to get technical, the 1997 championship game drew 2.85 million viewers on NBC in the league’s inaugural season. However, the next year, the WNBA instituted a series format to decide its champion.\
The number is all the more impressive when you consider the incredible growth the WNBA has seen as a whole in recent years. As put into proper perspective by Sports Media Watch, Game 1 of the WNBA Finals in 2021 drew just 469,000 viewers on ABC. In 2019, it was a paltry by comparison 238,000 viewers on ESPN. While those were both on Sundays, a full slate of college football (especially as one as exciting as this last Saturday’s action was) still provides stiff competition.
Unfortunately for the league’s ratings numbers, all but one of the remaining WNBA Finals will air on USA Network on cable instead of NBC. An expected drop came for Monday’s Game 2 with the series drawing Dream-Valkyries drew 1.33 million viewers on USA Network, CNBC, E!, and Peacock. That was still good enough for the most watched Game 2 on cable and was still a 9% increase over last year’s series.
Only Saturday’s Game 4 is scheduled to be an NBC at 3:30 p.m. ET. If the series goes seven games, a decisive Game 7 will be Saturday October 31 on USA Network at 8:00 p.m. ET. But regardless of what the rest of the series does, it’s a message to the rest of the sports world that while Caitlin Clark is one of the biggest needle movers in sports, the league isn’t solely dependent on her for ratings growth.