Women’s sports continue to post record ratings in the United States. On Saturday night, the 2023 WNBA All-Star Game joined the trend, becoming the most-watched All-Star Game the league’s had since 2007.
According to ESPN PR, the WNBA All-Star Game scored strong ratings with an average of 850,000 viewers. That number is up substantially from 2022, as that department saw a 16-percent increase. Also, an average of 986,000 viewers watched the pre-game show. Finally, the Skills Challenge and 3-Point Contest, which saw an absurd record-breaking performance, went up 43 percent despite an awkward timeslot of 4 p.m. Eastern.
https://twitter.com/ESPNPR/status/1681351004892151809
The WNBA saw ratings increases in 2022, and the trends don’t appear to be stopping with the All-Star Game. The decision to air the game in primetime on ABC proved to be the right call as it opened up the audience to its maximum potential. ESPN collected similar games in 2023 during the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship Game. That game between the LSU Tigers and Iowa Hawkeyes drew a record-setting audience on over-the-air ABC.
While Friday’s Skills Challenge and 3-Point Contest saw huge gains, the event probably earned even more attention. New York Liberty sensation Sabrina Ionescu delivered a flamethrower performance in the 3-Point Contest. Ionescu set a new record for both the WNBA and the NBA 3-Point Contests after making 25 of her 27 long-distance attempts. The network and league did face online criticism for the time of day it was aired. However, it obviously still saw enormous gains from the previous year’s edition.
[ESPN PR]
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022