WNBA viewership and attendance
Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020, regular season WNBA games were held without attending fans. In 2022, the first full unaffected season of the WNBA following the health crisis, average attendance for the league stood at 5,679. The WNBA’s average regular season attendance has steadily declined since its peak in 1998 at nearly 11 thousand fans on average. The 2023 WNBA season is to be expanded to 40 games per team, marking the most games scheduled in a single WNBA season. With Seattle Storm leading the way in terms of highest average regular season attendance, it remains to be seen how the expanded format will impact attendances across the league.In addition to watching WNBA games live, fans can also watch games on television. The average number of WNBA TV viewers fluctuated over the last five years, but reached a high of almost 380 thousand average viewers per game during the 2022 regular season.
Top teams and players in the WNBA
At the end of the regular season, the top teams in the WNBA compete in the WNBA Finals. Three WNBA teams are tied for the most WNBA championships won: the Minnesota Lynx, the Houston Comets, and the Seattle Storm, each with four championship wins. Former point guard for the Seattle Storm, Sue Bird, played the most games of any player in the WNBA, in a career spanning between 2002 and 2022. The Phoenix Mercury is another successful WNBA team, and while they have only won three WNBA Finals, they have the WNBA player with the all-time highest number of points scored in the league, Diana Taurasi. The Phoenix Mercury also boasted some of the highest paid players in the WNBA in 2022.
