WNBA Finals Game 7 Ratings Deliver Historic Statement About League's Growth
Women's basketball fans are still buzzing about the WNBA Finals series between the Golden State Valkyries and the Atlanta Dream, which ended with the Valkyries capturing their franchise's first league championship in just their second year of existence.
But it isn't just Valkyries fans who can (and should) celebrate the historic ratings that the seven-game series drew, which Colin Salao of Front Office Sports reported on Tuesday.
"Per source: Game 7 of the WNBA Finals drew 3.3M viewers Saturday on USA, CNBC, and Peacock, based on preliminary numbers from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics. Final numbers expected later today. If the number holds, Game 7 would be the most-watched WNBA game since 1997," Salao wrote in an X post.
He followed this up with another X post that read, "Based on the current numbers: 1.89M average for seven games, most-watched WNBA Finals ever
"G1: 2.1M (NBC, Peacock)
"G2: 1.33M (USA, CNBC, Peacock)
"G3: 1.71M (USA, CNBC, Peacock)
"G4: 1.9M (NBC, Peacock)
"G5: 1.4M (USA, CNBC, Peacock)
"G6: 1.5M (USA, E!, SYFY, Peacock)
"G7: 3.3M (USA, CNBC, Peacock)".
It's worth noting that Salao's numbers aren't finalized. Yet, he wouldn't be reporting them if he wasn't confident they were accurate.
The most interesting thing to see when the Game 7 metrics are finalized is whether it still beats the 3.31 million average viewers for when the Indiana Fever faced the Chicago Sky back in August.
It sounds like these two games were essentially a tie, but the final reporting will finalize that one way or another.
WNBA Finals Game 7 Ratings Deliver Massive Win for League's Future
Regardless of whether Game 7 surpasses that Fever vs. Sky contest, this is still a huge win for the WNBA—in large part because it shows that it doesn't need Fever star guard Caitlin Clark in the Finals to produce historic ratings.
And one would imagine that the average ratings would be even higher if Game 6 didn't take place in the morning on the West Coast and Game 7 wasn't on Halloween.
It is a good time to be a women's basketball fan, given how much shine the league is now getting. This is also why one can expect these ratings to continue to be broken in the future, since the sport and its audience continue to experience growth from year to year.
It's the Valkyries' franchise and fan base that will be celebrating their championship all winter. But the entire league can celebrate the game's growth.
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Grant Young covers women’s basketball for Women’s Fastbreak and Indiana Fever On SI. His coverage centers on league trends and the growth of women’s basketball, both on and off the court. He also creates digital content focused on the sport’s biggest moments and personalities.
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