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WNBA 2025 Season Records Historic Viewership on ESPN

It was a historic year across the board for the WNBA on ESPN.

Madison Williams

ESPN had their most viewed WNBA season ever in 2025.
ESPN had their most viewed WNBA season ever in 2025. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The 2025 WNBA season is officially over after the Las Vegas Aces won the title last week.

The year was filled with highlights and lowlights, star players and unfortunate injuries, and, of course, historic records were made.

ESPN shared on Thursday that the 2025 WNBA regular season was the network's most watched in league history. Viewership for the W continues to grow year after year it seems. It was already known that the postseason this year was the most viewed ever on ESPN, too, with an average of 1.2 million viewers across the 24 playoff games. The WNBA Finals were the second-most watched on ESPN, only down from last year's record.

Additionally, ESPN brought in the most viewers they've seen for the three-point contest during All-Star Weekend, along with having the record for the most viewers for opening weekend back in May.

What a historic year for the W.

Viewership across sports has increased because of the changes Nielsen data made to calculate the numbers. In 2020, Nielsen expanded the out-of-home viewership to cover 100% of markets, per Sports Media Watch. Additionally, the company uses data from set-top boxes and smart TVs when adding up viewership numbers.

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Madison Williams
MADISON WILLIAMS

Madison Williams is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where she specializes in tennis but covers a wide range of sports from a national perspective. Before joining SI in 2022, Williams worked at The Sporting News. Having graduated from Augustana College, she completed a master’s in sports media at Northwestern University. She is a dog mom and an avid reader.

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