WNBA Finals Posts Best Game 1 Viewership Since 2000

October 10, 2023

Despite stiff competition from the NFL on Sunday, the WNBA Finals managed to get off to its best viewership start in 23 years.

The Las Vegas Aces’ 99-82 victory over the New York Liberty in Game 1 was seen by 729,000 average viewers on ABC — the most for an opening game of the Finals since 2000 (872,000) when the Houston Comets beat the Liberty, per SportsMediaWatch. It was a 31% increase from the 2022 Finals’ Game 1 (555,000).

Sunday’s game also represented the largest audience for the WNBA Finals on an NFL Sunday since 2003, when the Detroit Shock narrowly defeated the Los Angeles Sparks in Game 2 with 1.28 million viewers watching. FOS