{"id":217362,"date":"2025-10-16T13:24:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/217362\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T13:24:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:24:08","slug":"mercury-aces-finals-battle-draws-huge-viewership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/217362\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercury, Aces Finals Battle Draws Huge Viewership"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_2v3hjkx45\"><a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_k0tslj\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/wnba\/mercury\/phoenix-las-vegas-aces-sophie-cunningham-kaela-davis\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Phoenix Mercury <\/a>have made the WNBA Finals in the past, and this year, they made it for the first time since 2021. That was the year that they beat the New York Liberty, Seattle Storm, the Las Vegas Aces and they faced the Chicago Sky in hopes of winning their fourth championship. However, the Mercury lost to the Sky, who beat them 3-1 to win their first championship. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_t513qo8o0\">This year, the Mercury took down the Liberty, the Minnesota Lynx and they met the Aces in the Finals. Las Vegas swept them to win their third championship. The Aces won their <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_k0tslj\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/story\/_\/id\/41330459\/wnba-teams-most-championships\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">third championship<\/a> in history, which ties them with the Mercury, the Detroit Shock and the Los Angeles Sparks. <\/p>\n<p><img class=\"base_1emrqjj-o_O-initial_fzbddc-o_O-style_1a1csmw\" alt=\"Alyssa Thoma\" title=\"Alyssa Thoma\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Las Vegas Aces center A&#8217;ja Wilson (22) pressures Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas (25) in Game Four of the WNBA Finals at Mortgage Matchup Center on Oct. 10, 2025, in Phoenix. \/ Rob Schumacher\/The Republic \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_8sdjc5amd\">Las Vegas and Phoenix worked hard to get to that point, and despite the Mercury losing, they proved that they are a <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_k0tslj\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/wnba\/mercury\/phoenix-las-vegas-aces-seattle-storm-alyssa-thomas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">contending team<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_5vz1yjcoq\">In what was the Mercury&#8217;s sixth time in the Finals, they had eyes on them. People were tuned in as these two teams looked to win another championship. <\/p>\n<p><img class=\"base_1emrqjj-o_O-initial_fzbddc-o_O-style_1a1csmw\" alt=\"Alyssa Thoma\" title=\"Alyssa Thoma\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas (25) leaves the game just before halftime after being fouled by the Las Vegas Aces in Game Four of the WNBA Finals at Mortgage Matchup Center on Oct. 10, 2025, in Phoenix. \/ Rob Schumacher\/The Republic \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_h4w1wmd6l\">The Aces hosted the Mercury in the first game of the series, and they beat Phoenix 89-86. It was a competitive game, and something special happened. That game had 1.9 million viewers. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_kc0c6gd97\">Las Vegas was home for the second game as well, and they beat Phoenix 91-78. That game had 1.2 million viewers. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_w3sy2y1tz\">Phoenix headed home for the next two games, and they were looking to get a win and extend the series. They nearly did it in Game 3, but the Aces beat them 90-88. The Mercury trailed, but after Satou Sabally exited the game, Kahleah Copper and the Mercury went on a late run and the Aces&#8217; lead began to dwindle. <\/p>\n<p><img class=\"base_1emrqjj-o_O-initial_fzbddc-o_O-style_1a1csmw\" alt=\"Phoenix Mercur\" title=\"Phoenix Mercur\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Las Vegas Aces play the Phoenix Mercury in Game Four of the WNBA Finals at Mortgage Matchup Center on Oct. 10, 2025, in Phoenix. \/ Rob Schumacher\/The Republic \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_wh3fb4z9j\">The Mercury had a chance, but A&#8217;ja Wilson put an end to their hopes. She hit a late shot in that game that gave her team the lead, and the Aces were up 3-0 after that. That game had more viewers than the second, as 1.3 million people tuned in. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_lc4gorvlv\">After that, the Mercury were on the verge of elimination, and they tried to force a Game 5. However, the Aces closed out the series. The final game of that series had 1.4 million viewers. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_4y5h9vs6o\">Overall, the Finals averaged 1.5 million viewers. There were two great teams in that series, and chances are, this will not be the last time people see either of these teams in the Finals. The league is growing, and as time passes, more and more people will tune in. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_izxtrvh5m\">Please follow us on X to read more about the Mercury and their time in the WNBA Finals when you click right <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_k0tslj\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MercuryOnSI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phoenix Mercury have made the WNBA Finals in the past, and this year, they made it for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-217362","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}