Breanna Stewart addresses disappointing Unrivaled viewership numbers

Originally posted on Women's Fastbreak on SI
By Grant Young | Last updated Jan 13, 2026 2:20 PM ET

Expectations were high for the Unrivaled 3x3 women's basketball league headed into its 2026 season.

This is owed to their inaugural 2025 campaign being a success, as the new league convinced many of the world's top women's basketball players to compete, attracted significant interest, and delivered a strong on-court product. And given that the league is offering extremely impressive salaries for every player who partakes in Unrivaled, this felt like a huge win for all parties.

But the stakes were raised in 2026. For one, the WNBA's immediate future remains uncertain because of the ongoing CBA negotiations, which presented an opportunity for Unrivaled to capitalize on. What's more, the emergence of Project B, which is another basketball league within the WNBA's offseason, is set to embark upon its first season later this year, which means Unrivaled now has competition.

Plus, the novelty factor for fans has now worn off. They know what to expect from Unrivaled, which would separate those tuning in because of mere curiosity from the true fans. And the result of this would presumably show up in Unrivaled's ratings.

The Athletic's Ben Pickman revealed the viewership metrics for Unrivaled's Opening Day games on January 8 with an X post that read, "Unrivaled Opening Day on Monday averaged 175K viewers during its primetime window of games

"Afternoon window averaged 107K viewers

"All that is down from 208K average viewership during regular season games in Unrivaled Y1."

NEWS: Some Unrivaled viewership #s, per sources:

Unrivaled Opening Day on Monday averaged 175K viewers during its primetime window of games

Afternoon window averaged 107K viewers

All that is down from 208K average viewership during regular season games in Unrivaled Y1.
— Ben Pickman (@benpickman) January 8, 2026

This raised red flags, given that Unrivaled's opening weekend last year averaged over 300,000 viewers for the first two games. This shows a huge decrease in viewership that doesn't bode well for the league's continued growth.

Breanna Stewart speaks out on Unrivaled viewership reveal

Nobody has been more attached to Unrivaled than New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart, who is a co-founder of the league. And she recently spoke about these ratings, which were conveyed in a January 11 article from Madeline Kenney of the New York Post.

“Obviously, we want them to be consistently high no matter if we play on Friday or Saturday, Sunday or Monday, and know that we have a space of our own here and in the league of sports,” Stewart said. “People aren’t typically used to seeing women’s professional basketball at this time unless you’re watching Euroleague or something like that, so ratings is a huge one.”

Unrivaled’s success may come down to sequel season’s viewership https://t.co/tKKJIVQJBs pic.twitter.com/PtBzTaayZB
— New York Post (@nypost) January 12, 2026