The New York Liberty are headed to the WNBA finals in 2024. New York has been the most dominant team in the WNBA all season, and they now have a chance to hoist up the championship trophy with a matchup against the Minnesota Lynx on the horizon.
Before the series between the Liberty and Lynx tips off, New York owner Clara Wu Tsai spoke with the media about the WNBA’s historic season.
The league broke countless records in viewership and total attendance, and much of that has to do with the rookie class, most notably Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark.
“Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso, Cameron Brink…a lot of these players became household names even before they entered the (WNBA) draft,” Wu Tsai said. “They are a highly skilled rookie class and brought a lot of attention and eyeballs to the WNBA.
Wu Tsai gave much of the credit to Clark and her style of play. She mentioned that the logo three is comparable to a highlight dunk in the NBA, and that’s the “kind of basketball people wanna see.”
While Wu Tsai gave a quick shoutout to Chicago Sky stars Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso, she seemingly believes that the WNBA’s uptick in viewership stems from Clark.
“The thing with Caitlin is that people come to watch her style of play,” Wu Tsai added. “The logo three is basically the equivalent of our dunk. We don’t need to dunk. We have the logo three. That kind of basketball people wanna see, and they want to see it in person. It is because of her and the entire rookie class that we saw such an upswing in viewership.”
The WNBA saw a 170% increase in viewership across all ESPN platforms from the 2023 to 2024 regular season. The league averaged 1.19 million viewers per game on ESPN.
As a whole, in terms of unique viewers throughout the season, the WNBA earned 54 million views from ESPN, ABC, CBS, ESPN2, ION and NBA TV.
The league also had its highest total attendance in 22 years, while being up 54% from the 2023 season. They lured 2,353,735 fans across the WNBA in 2024. There were also 154 sellouts, compared to 45 in 2023, which counts for a 242% increase.
While many players and teams made their mark on the rise in viewership, the rookie class, led by Clark, seems to have been the driving force.
During her rookie season with the Fever, Clark averaged 19.2 points, 8.4 assists, and 5.7 rebounds per game. She led the WNBA in average assists and led the rookie class in points, ultimately earning the Rookie of the Year award.
The No. 1 overall pick from the 2024 draft was also able to help the Fever clinch a spot in the WNBA playoffs for the first time since 2016.
They ended the regular season with a 20-20 record, listed as the No. 6 seed in the WNBA standings.
