WNBA attendance & viewership figures open the season strong

WNBA 2025 opening weekend gets off to a strong start
image credit: zimmytws / Shutterstock.com

On the opening weekend of the 2025/26 WNBA season, 89% of arenas were near full capacity as the league continues to ride the wave of its new momentum. 

The Washington Mystics win over the Atlanta Dream on May 16 drew a sell out crowd for game one, as did the College Park Canter arena when the Dallas Wings hosted the Minnesota Lynx, albeit to a loss. 

There were also two high-profile sell out crowds that occurred last weekend. The debut of the Golden State Valkyries on May 17 was at 100% capacity at Chase Centre for its defeat to the Los Angeles Sparks. The sell out crowd is even more impressive as Chase Centre in San Francisco holds a capacity of 18,064. 

The most highly-anticipated game during opening weekend was Indiana Fever’s 98-53 win over the Chicago Sky. Indiana’s Caitlin Clark, arguably the league’s most popular player, led her team to victory over collegiate rival Angel Reese of the Sky. 

Another notable attendance figure on WNBA opening weekend saw 17,344 people in almost complete capacity at the Barclays Centre for reigning champions New York Liberty’s victory over the Las Vegas Aces

WNBA’s 2025 opening weekend in total saw an average attendance of 8,487 across all eight games, a 36.7% increase from the opening week last year. 

Viewership also continues to grow

While the first games of the 2025 season benefitted from games being played over the weekend and not midweek like last year, the rising attendance figures also reflects the WNBA’s increase in popularity amongst attendees and viewers. 

The Fever-Spark game on May 17 for example, drew an average viewership of 2.7 million viewers. Meanwhile, the Liberty-Aces game averaged 1.3 million viewers during the Saturday night slot. 

Many would have believed WNBA viewership may have suffered during running the same time as the NBA Playoffs, in particular last Saturday, as the New York Knicks competed against the Boston Celtics in game six of their semi-final series. 

The viewership figures of the opening weekend demonstrate the WNBA’s growth it experienced last season, when multiple viewership and attendance records were broken. 

According to ESPN, the 2024 WNBA season was the most-watched regular season ever, averaging an audience of 1.2 million viewers across the 24 games it broadcasted. This is a 170% increase from 2023 viewership figures. 

Attendance figures last season also saw a significant increase. The 2024 WNBA season averaged attendance of 9,807 fans, a sharp rise from the 6,615 average from the 2023 season. 

The league also drew 154 sellout crowds last season, compared to just 45 sellout games the year before. The total attendance of all WNBA games in 2024 was 2.35 million, which was the most in 22 years. 

Led by a new generation of stars such as Clark, Reese, along with established stars Sabrina Ionescu and A’ja Wilson, and incoming rookies like Paige Bueckers and Hailey Van Lith, the WNBA is laying down the foundations for even more growth down the line. 

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