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The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) saw a 16 per cent year-over-year (YoY) viewership increase across its domestic broadcast partners during the 2022 regular season.
National coverage on CBS, as well as via Disney-owned ACB and ESPN, averaged 379,000 viewers per game, the highest audience figures for the US women’s basketball league in 14 years.
Similarly, the 2022 All Star game scored an average of 734,000 viewers, the most viewed edition of the event in six years, marking a 53 per cent increase over the 2021 edition.
Viewership of the 2022 WNBA draft was up 20 per cent YoY to reach an average of 403,000 on ESPN, making it the most watched broadcast of the annual college player selection event since 2004.
Meanwhile, the WNBA League Pass over-the-top (OTT) streaming service saw a ten per cent subscription increase during the 2022 regular season.
On social media, the league generated a record 186 million video views, a 36 per cent increase on last season.
Traffic to WNBA’s owned and operated digital platforms almost doubled over the last year in terms of unique visitors, drawing 5.4 million – a 99 per cent YoY increase. Total visits were also up 79 per cent to reach 9.2 million, with the website drawing 23.8 million page views, up 83 per cent on last year.
The WNBA playoffs will tip off on 17th August, with a maximum of 27 games on ABC, ESPN’s pay-TV channels or digital platforms and NBA TV.
