2026 WNBA season was ESPN/ABC’s most-watched ever

For all the controversy, narratives, and right-wing meddling happening off the court, the WNBA had another stellar season of fans tuning in to watch the action on it.

ESPN announced Friday that for the third straight year, the stretch of WNBA games broadcast across ESPN and ABC this season was the most-watched in its history.

Across 29 total games, the WNBA on ESPN networks averaged 1.37 million viewers, up 17% year over year. ESPN aired 17 games this season, averaging 1.24 million viewers, up 32% year over year, while 12 ABC games averaged 1.56 million viewers, up 9% year over year.

Naturally, Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever drove much of the interest. ESPN had five games average over 2 million viewers, all of them including the Fever. The August 16 game between the Fever and Angel Reese’s Atlanta Dream garnered a season-high 2.58 million viewers. That was also the most-watched WNBA regular-season or postseason game ever on cable.

No Clark? No problem. Non-Fever games on ESPN/ABC averaged 984,000 viewers, up 24% year over year.

WNBA Countdown averaged 595,000 viewers, up 27% from the previous season.

As Jon Lewis at Sports Media Watch noted, ESPN/ABC finished second (and third) among WNBA broadcasters this season. NBC averaged 1.75 million across its seven-game schedule, with Nielsen-measured linear ratings and Adobe Analytics tracking streaming viewership. Their August 23 game between the Fever and Chicago Sky averaged 3.3 million, via Nielsen and Adobe.

CBS averaged 1.275 million for its 20-game WNBA schedule, up 9% from last year’s nine-game package (1.17 million). Their most-watched game of the season was July’s Fever-New York Liberty contest, which drew 2.58 million.

Scripps-owned ION finished the season averaging 617,000 viewers, while Prime Video averaged 437,000 viewers.