TV Ratings: WNBA All-Star Game Shatters All-Time Viewer High

The WNBA All-Star Game on Saturday drew the contest’s biggest audience ever — by a huge margin.

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The game, which pitted the U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team against WNBA stars not selected for the Paris games, drew 3.44 million viewers on ABC, per Nielsen — 2 million more than the previous high All-Star Game high, set back in 2003. The All-Star Game ranks third among all WNBA telecasts in the league’s 28-year history, behind only the first two nationally televised games in 1997.

Viewing peaked at 4.05 million in the final minutes of the game (from 10:30-10:43 p.m. ET), which saw Team WNBA defeat Team USA, 117-109. Arike Ogunbowale of the Dallas Wings was named MVP after scoring 34 points, an All-Star Game record, for Team WNBA.

The game also earned the best ratings of the weekend among adults 18-49 and 25-54, and women in those same age groups.

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Saturday’s telecast drew more than four times as big an audience as the 2023 WNBA All-Star Game (850,000). Friday’s ESPN telecast of the All-Star Skills Challenge also improved by a bunch: It averaged 695,000 viewers, more than doubling the 288,000 for the 2023 event.

Heading into its Olympic break (the season resumes on Aug. 15), the WNBA has recorded 16 nationally televised games with 1 million viewers or more this season (not including those that stream on Amazon’s Prime Video) — already a record for the league, with 17 more regular-season national telecasts to come, plus the playoffs. The previous high was 15 games above 1 million viewers (including playoffs), set in 1998.

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