It's not an increase, it's an explosion! Last year, the WNBA All-Star Game attracted 850,000 viewers on ABC. This year, while the broadcast circumstances are identical, 3.44 million people watched the event, which pitted the American selection, Team USA, against a selection of All-Stars, Team WNBA.
So, this is a four-fold increase in audience for the victory of Arike Ogunbowale and company.
Even compared to the most-watched All-Star Game in WNBA history, in 2003, the increase is impressive. At the time, the game featuring legends Dawn Staley, Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper, Lisa Leslie and Sue Bird only attracted 1.3 million viewers in front of their small screens…
“This weekend’s extraordinary viewership underscores the exponential growth of women’s sports, and ESPN is proud to showcase this incredible league and its exceptional athletes on such a grand stage.”, Julie Sobieski said in particularESPN's vice president of league programming and acquisitions.
It must be said that this is already the 17th WNBA meeting to be followed by more than a million viewers in 2024. However, upstream, it had been 16 years since the women's league had reached this mark…
