Oct 20, 2024; Brooklyn, New York, USA; New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu (20) celebrates after defeating the Minnesota Lynx in time beyond regulation to win the 2024 WNBA Finals at Barclays Middle. Necessary Credit score: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Photos The New York Liberty’s title-clinching victory over the Minnesota Lynx on Sunday was probably the most watched WNBA Finals sport since 1999.
The Recreation 5 thriller, gained by the Liberty 67-62 in time beyond regulation, had a 1.1 ranking with 2.15 million viewers on ESPN. The earlier excessive was the deciding Recreation 3 of the 1999 WNBA Finals between the Houston Comets and Liberty that had 3.25 million viewers.
It was the fourth largest viewers ever for a WNBA Finals sport, with the opposite three all broadcast on NBC.
Earlier than Sunday, the biggest viewers for a Recreation 5 of the NBA Finals was 913,000 viewers for a Los Angeles Sparks vs. Lynx winner-take-all sport in 2017. The WNBA switched to a best-of-five Finals format in 2005 and can change to a best-of-seven format subsequent season.
At the same time as Sunday’s sport determined the WNBA championship, it was simply the seventh largest WNBA viewers this season, counting the WNBA Draft.
The six video games this season with an even bigger viewers all concerned rookie sensation Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever. That listing consists of 4 Fever video games, the draft and the WNBA All-Star Recreation.
Clark has drawn a wider viewers to the WNBA, with the league reaching not less than 1 million viewers for 32 broadcasts this yr, together with the draft. The earlier report was 15 broadcasts in 1998. Of the 31 video games with not less than 1 million viewers, 24 of them concerned the Fever and Clark.
–Discipline Degree Media