![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/68f68a8c67890.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nThe Women\u2019s National Basketball Association (WNBA) continues its upward trajectory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The league concluded the 2024\u201325 season with record-breaking viewership numbers on ESPN, Disney\u2019s sports network.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Across 50 broadcasts, the WNBA averaged 1.2 million viewers per game, a 5% increase from last season and the highest audience average in the league\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A general view of the WNBA court logo<\/p>\n
Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n
The games were televised on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2. During the 25 regular season games broadcast, the WNBA averaged 1.3 million viewers, marking a 6% rise compared to the previous year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, ESPN\u2019s coverage of 24 playoff games drew an average of 1.2 million viewers, up 5% year-over-year.<\/p>\n
The 2025 WNBA Finals, contested between the Phoenix Mercury and the Las Vegas Aces, were broadcast on YouTube TV via ABC and ESPN.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The four-game series averaged 1.5 million viewers, making it the second-most-watched Finals in ESPN\u2019s WNBA history, surpassed only by the 2024 edition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The opening game drew 1.9 million viewers, the largest audience for a WNBA Finals matchup in 28 years.<\/p>\n
Beyond game broadcasts, ESPN\u2019s WNBA programming also saw a surge. WNBA Countdown averaged 437,000 viewers, up 30% compared to last season.<\/p>\n
Despite these strong ratings and growing visibility, the WNBA now faces labor unrest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Players are demanding improved conditions and a new collective bargaining agreement. Without progress, they are prepared to strike, a move that could inflict multimillion-dollar losses on the league.<\/p>\n
According to sports economist David Berri, WNBA players in 2025 received less than 7% of Basketball-Related Income (BRI).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other sources estimate that figure could be between 9% and 10% of total revenues.<\/p>\n
Player compensation remains a central issue. Base salaries hover around $75,000, while even the league\u2019s top stars barely surpass $250,000 annually\u2014figures that stand in stark contrast to those of their male counterparts in the NBA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Women\u2019s National Basketball Association (WNBA) continues its upward trajectory.\u00a0 The league concluded the 2024\u201325 season with record-breaking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-228260","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\/228260","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=228260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}