Through Three Games, WNBA Finals Sets 20-Year Viewership High

The New York Liberty and WNBA Finals viewership both rebounded in Game 3.

Sunday’s 87-73 win for New York over the Las Vegas Aces averaged 659,000 viewers — making it the most-watched Finals Game 3 in 18 years and a 14% increase over 2022’s comparable contest. The contest peaked with 945,000 viewers at 5 p.m. ET.

Interestingly, the WNBA Finals have performed better on Sundays while competing against the NFL rather than on a weeknight: Game 1 of the series garnered 729,000 average viewers, while Game 2 last Wednesday averaged just 626,000.

Overall, though, the WNBA Finals are doing quite well viewership-wise: Through three games, the series is averaging 673,000 viewers across ABC and ESPN — the most-watched Finals through Game 3 in 20 years and a 13% increase from 2022.

The WNBA and the Liberty experienced another win on Sunday as well. With 17,143 attending the game at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, New York reported a league record for gate receipt (specific revenue numbers were not reported). 

Ahead of the series, tickets on the secondary market were some of the highest in WNBA history, with Game 3 in particular being one of the best-selling games on record at ticket marketplace StubHub.