Aces-Mercury WNBA Finals ESPN Ratings Reveal Speaks Volumes
There has been a lot of interest and anticipation for how much viewership the 2025 WNBA Finals have received through the first two games of the series.
While the Las Vegas Aces are undoubtedly one of the league's most popular teams (and have some big names both on their roster and their coaching staff, such as reigning WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson and head coach Becky Hammon), the Phoenix Mercury doesn't tout that same sort of star power.
That's not to say that the Mercury don't have great players. They do, including Alyssa Thomas, Satou Sabally, and Kahleah Copper. However, while this Phoenix squad was much better than their 2024 campaign, the two biggest names by far from last year's team (Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner) are no longer there.
This led some to expect that while true women's basketball fans would be locked in to this seven-game Finals series, it probably wasn't receiving interest from more casual sports fans.
WNBA Finals Game 1 Sees Impressive Ratings
The wait for the 2025 WNBA Finals' Game 1 TV ratings is now over, as ESPN (which broadcasted the first two games) made an X post on October 7 that read, "ESPN scored the most-watched Game 1 of the #WNBAFinals presented by YouTube TV in 28 Years! 👏
"🏀 1.9M avg. viewers | Up 62% YoY
"🏀 WNBA Playoffs up 16% YoY".
ESPN scored the most-watched Game 1 of the #WNBAFinals presented by YouTube TV in 28 Years! 👏
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) October 7, 2025
🏀 1.9M avg. viewers | Up 62% YoY
🏀 WNBA Playoffs up 16% YoY pic.twitter.com/vr1X5ThoPt
1.9 million viewers is quite an impressive viewership metric, especially when compared with last year's WNBA Finals (which featured the 2024 champion New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx).
It will be interesting to see how Game 2 will match up with Game 1 when it comes to viewership. Game 1 was a fantastic back-and-forth contest, which resulted in an Aces win. Perhaps this convinced some fans who were on the fence about spectating this series that they should keep tuning in.
Game 2 didn't bring that same intensity, as Las Vegas cruised to a relatively easy victory. While that easy win might have a negative effect on Game 3 (which takes place on October 8), one would imagine that Game 2 is still going to have solid viewership.
Regardless, these Game 1 ratings speak volumes that the league's boom in popularity extends beyond Indiana Fever star guard Caitlin Clark. While Clark has been a massive catalyst and brought a ton of eyeballs to the game, these ratings would suggest that those eyeballs have also become interested in other teams and players aside from Clark and the Fever.
And this is only going to continue to help the WNBA keep growing.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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