The Women's National Basketball Association, America's top women's basketball league. It celebrated its 25th anniversary season in 2021.
In the past decade women's basketball has become far easier to find and watch. In 2015 ESPN televised only 11 games in the season. In 2021 mainstream networks agreed to increase programming and broadcast at least 100 games. By 2025 more than 175 games are being televised or streamed.
A total of 54m viewers tuned in to the 2024 regular season, almost double the number that watched in 2022. Games broadcast on ESPN attracted an average of 1.2m American viewers; 1.5m watched equivalent men's league matches across all channels. Men make up 60% of the WNBA's audience, in part because the league plays when the NBA does not.
A new media-rights deal worth $200m a year is set to come into effect in 2026, making the WNBA the most valuable women's sports league in the world, surpassing the National Women's Soccer League. New teams in Portland, San Francisco and Toronto are to join by 2026. In February 2025 a bid of $250m was made to add a franchise in Cleveland. The San Francisco team played its first game in May 2025. Due to "surging demand" the league plans to add five more teams beyond those already announced.
WNBA players earn around $120,000 a year on average, compared with $10m in the NBA. Unlike in the NBA, pay rises are not linked to revenue growth, so higher ticket sales do not filter down to players. The league's collective-bargaining agreement expires on October 31st 2025.
The NBA is the majority owner of the WNBA and claims the women's league still loses money, though it does not publish accounts. A media deal unveiled in 2024 could boost revenue to $500m in 2026. Five new teams will be added by 2030, collectively paying expansion fees of nearly $1bn. The New York Liberty was sold for about $15m in 2019; by 2025 an equity sale valued it at $450m.
Attendance in 2025 climbed to a record level, up 50% from ten years ago.
Caitlin Clark, a point guard for Indiana Fever, scored 122 three-pointers in her debut season in 2024, after finishing college in Iowa. She earned $11m in sponsorship deals. Paige Bueckers, a 23-year-old point guard, was recruited by the Dallas Wings for the 2025 season, boosting the team's ticket sales by almost 350%. The Minnesota Lynx have won four titles, a joint record.
Sources: The Economist, May 15th 2025
Not drinking, chasing women, or doing drugs won't make you live longer -- it just seems that way.