The post WNBA announces astonishing Game 1 viewership that broke 28-year mark appeared first on ClutchPoints.
The Las Vegas Aces came out 89-86 winners in a thrilling Game 1 of the WNBA Finals against the Phoenix Mercury. A’ja Wilson topscored with 21 points and 10 rebounds as the Aces’ bench outscored the Mercury’s 41-16 in a game that had a total of 12 lead changes.
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However, another astonishing fact is that it has now been confirmed to be the most-watched Game 1 of the WNBA Finals in 28 years, per WNBA. The league confirmed via a post on X that Game 1 registered an average of 1.9 million viewers with a peak viewership of 2.5 million.
The WNBA playoffs, still ongoing, have till date registered a 16% year-on-year increase in viewership, with an average viewership of 1.2 million. The overall Game 1 viewership was only less than the 1997 WNBA Finals, which took place in a single-game championship format.
Further, the WNBA Countdown show also registered an average viewership of 626k, which is a 78% YoY increase. The stats come at a time when the WNBA has been negotiating the CBA with the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA).
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The overall sentiment amongst players has been that player salaries simply do not reflect the kind of revenue they bring in, with Napheesa Collier recently launching a scathing attack on WNBA president Cathy Engelbert. The players’ association opted out of the current CBA last year, with the deadline to negotiate a new one being October 31.
However, no clear progress has as of yet been made, with multiple sources suggesting that the players’ union has no intention of extending the current CBA. Sophie Cunningham recently even floated the idea of a players’ strike, claiming that it is already being seen as an option by the WNBPA.
The new viewership statistics undoubtedly give the union another major reason to push for a fairer CBA that rewards them for the overall growth the WNBA has seen in recent years.
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Related: Mercury’s Satou Sabally sets firm stance on WNBA’s CBA negotiations
