The viewership numbers are in for WNBA opening weekend, and the game with the four most recent No. 1 overall picks fell just short of the bar set last year.
The Dallas Wings beat the Indiana Fever 107-104 to tip off a slate of four games on Saturday in the second most-watched regular-season game ever.
According to the league, an average of 2.49 million viewers tuned in as Azzi Fudd (2026 No. 1 overall pick) and Paige Bueckers (2025 No. 1 pick) made their debut as professional teammates against Fever superstar Caitlin Clark (2024 No. 1) and Aliyah Boston (2023 No. 1 pick).
Compared to a corresponding game last season, those numbers are down slightly. When the league pit Clark’s Fever and Angel Reese’s Chicago Sky teams against each other in a similar time slot — the second day of 2025’s opening weekend — that game drew 2.7 million viewers.
Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever dribbles the ball against Paige Bueckers of the Dallas Wings.
That matchup set a record for the most-watched WNBA regular-season game across ESPN networks. It was also the most-viewed WNBA regular-season game in 25 years, dating back to when NBC initially broadcasted the WNBA.
An early report from longtime media reporter Richard Deitsch said “Suns-Mercury averaged 1.15M viewers,” noting a blowout reduced the viewership. It’s likely he was referring to the Phoenix Mercury blowing out the defending champion Las Vegas Aces 99-66 on Saturday, since there is no WNBA team called the Suns.
The WNBA’s overall opener on Friday also ended up in a blowout as the New York Liberty beat the Connecticut Sun 106-75.
The $2.2 billion 11-year media deal the league inked two years ago (now estimated to be worth more than $3.1 million), includes Disney (ABC, ESPN), NBCUniversal (NBC, Peacock), Amazon (Prime Video), Paramount (CBS), Scripps (Ion), USA Sports (USA Network) and NBA TV.
For some of the platforms, the league’s milestone 30th season marks their first foray into the WNBA.
Early numbers have already started to come out, including those for USA Sports’ inaugural WNBA broadcast.
An average of 529,000 viewers watched as USA Sports aired the Aces’ 107-78 win over the Los Angeles Sparks on Sunday. That’s an 18% increase from last year’s WNBA regular-season cable average viewership.
The Aces’ bounce-back game also had the youngest median age of all national WNBA broadcasts from opening weekend; with women making up 51% of the audience.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fever, Wings is second most-watched regular-season WNBA game ever
