Oct 8, 2025; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon against the Phoenix Mercury during game three of the 2025 WNBA Finals at PHX Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Historic WNBA ESPN Playoff Ratings Reveal Comes With Caveat

Originally posted on Women's Fastbreak on SI
By Grant Young | Last updated Oct 14, 2025 7:59 PM ET

There's no question that interest in the WNBA suffered because of the injury-plagued 2025 campaign that Indiana Fever superstar guard Caitlin Clark had.

It seemed like the WNBA was setting ratings records with every game during Clark's 2024 rookie season with the Fever. And if her team had managed to win a single playoff game, let alone advance deeper into the postseason, then interest would have skyrocketed even higher than it already had.

Then Clark played just 13 games in the regular season, and that unprecedented attention the WNBA was getting last year felt like a very long time ago.

ESPN Reveals Historic Playoff Numbers (That Come With Caveat)

However, Clark isn't the only driver of interest for women's basketball. And this is shown by the historic ratings that the 2025 WNBA playoffs produced this season, which ESPN revealed with an X post on October 14.

"ESPN recorded the most-watched WNBA postseason (Playoffs + Finals) EVER across its networks," the post was captioned. In the accompanying graphic, it was noted that the 2025 WNBA postseason averaged 1.2 million viewers, which is a 5% increase from last season.

What's more, Game 1 of the WNBA Finals (between the Las Vegas Aces and Phoenix Mercury) was the most-watched WNBA Finals game in 28 years, averaging 1.5 million viewers. Plus, the 13 postseason ESPN WNBA Countdown episodes averaged 437,000 viewers, which was a 30% increase from 2024.

ESPN recorded the most-watched WNBA postseason (Playoffs + Finals) EVER across its networks pic.twitter.com/ZJWCI19LUa
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) October 14, 2025

But there's a caveat to all these announcements: not everything matched up to 2024.

ESPN's graphic noted that the 2025 WNBA Finals were the second-most-watched on ESPN networks, trailing only the 2024 WNBA Finals between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx.

The reason for this is probably because the Aces swept the Mercury in four games of a best-of-seven series this year, while the 2024 Finals (which was a best-of-five series) went down to the absolute wire and was thrilling from start to finish.

The distinct drop in viewership between Game 1 of this year's final between Games 2 and 3 (1.2 and 1.3 million viewers, respectively) would also suggest that interest waned once the series became more out of reach for Phoenix.

The WNBA is seeing its best Finals viewership through 3 games in 25 years.

Game 1: 1.9 million viewers
Game 2: 1.2 million viewers
Game 3: 1.3 million viewershttps://t.co/F2VgTOqXq4
— Margaret Fleming (@mgfleming12) October 10, 2025

The Game 4 ratings haven't been made public yet. But considering that the 2025 WNBA Finals averaged the most viewers in league history through three games (as per Margaret Fleming's X post on October 10), it seems like Game 4 might have struggled to catch and keep a solid audience.

Still, this ESPN ratings reveal is a resounding success for the WNBA. And it makes one wonder what viewership will look like if Caitlin Clark can keep healthy in 2026.

This article first appeared on Women's Fastbreak on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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