NBA 2K26 builds upon recent growth for women’s athlete representation in blockbuster video games, with the latest edition of the Take-Two Interactive franchise upping the prominence of WNBA players, who were completely absent from the series for years.
In NBA 2K26, which fully releases Friday, users can deploy WNBA stars alongside NBAers in MyTeam for the first time, use WNBA teams in competitive online play and experiment with a fleshed-out W mode. Chicago Sky star forward Angel Reese is on the WNBA edition cover—an alt-product trend introduced in NBA 2K22 when former Sky star Candace Parker adorned a cover in honor of the WNBA’s 25th anniversary.
Advertisement
More from Sportico.com
Just seven years ago, WNBA players didn’t appear in 2K at all. Since then, women’s basketball has enjoyed a wave of commercial and cultural momentum that made Take-Two take notice.
“It will be far more front and center than it has ever been,” OneTeam Partners president Frank Arthofer said in a phone interview. “We continue to see this demand for platform basketball games, which are including women in a bigger way. We’re on this stage of growth, and we’ll see if that evolves into a standalone women’s basketball title in the future.”
Because of the high financial stakes, it is particularly notable that Take-Two is including the WNBA in this year’s MyTeam—a version of Ultimate Team in which users can acquire cards through microtransactions or by completing challenges. MyTeam is one of the publisher’s top revenue sources, ahead of full game sales, because of the presence of in-game purchases.
Advertisement
Several years ago, Electronic Arts placed women’s players in its annual soccer game’s Ultimate Team mode alongside men’s players, helping increase name recognition for stars in the NWSL and WSL among casual fans.
But basketball presented an additional challenge for an Ultimate Team mode, as hoops performance is generally more height-correlated than in soccer, complicating how WNBA players might fare on the same virtual court as NBA players in MyTeam. Take-Two said this year’s MyTeam will have a “balanced and consistent gameplay experience regardless of who you’re controlling.”
It may be too soon to predict when a freestanding WNBA game could hit the shelves—if ever—but this latest version gives gamers an idea of what that could look like. Basketball fans will be able to play with the WNBA’s biggest, from Minnesota Lynx star and MVP candidate Napheesa Collier, who has the game’s highest ranking (98), to Indiana Fever phenom Caitlin Clark.
The increased level of blending between WNBA and NBA players in the game has become a greater priority for 2K studio Visual Concepts as market demand grows. These developments are also key for the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA), which renewed its deal with parent company Take-Two Interactive on record terms last year.
Advertisement
WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson said business momentum around the players has turned into real market value, while more companies invest in their growth not only as athletes but also cultural influencers. Reese, for example, is the most followed WNBA player on Instagram with more than five million followers and recently dropped her first Reebok signature basketball shoe (Angel Reese 1), which is shown on the 2K26 cover.
“Group licensing lets that value scale, giving players more opportunities, more categories and more creative ways to connect with fans,” Jackson said in a statement. “This is how you build a bigger game and a bigger business for the women who power it.”
The union is not only charged with protecting their members, but also responsible for creating commercial opportunities and managing group licensing deals. This is done in partnership with OneTeam Partners, which focuses on athletes’ name, image and likeness.
The commercial arm has helped the players union become one of the most in-demand player collectives in sports, with merchandise sales projected to lift 115% this year (year-over-year). Since Parker was placed as a cover athlete for 2K22 in 2021, there’s been a 20x annual jump in commercial activity for the WNBPA, the union says—fueled by the first-ever licensed fanwear lines, expanded trading card programs and other player driven campaigns.
Advertisement
It’s a far cry from when WNBPA spent years being financially constrained to explore and engage in licensing deals, with only a handful of commercial partners before the pandemic. Its limited number of staffers and internal resources is one of the key reasons it hired OneTeam Partners in 2021 as the women’s sports marketplace was starting to explode.
Tapping into the demand for women’s basketball content though is just one focus area of the union, which now has nearly 10 national partners as well as about 40 licensees. This list includes other digital partners like ESPN Bet as well as sponsorship partners like DoorDash and Aflac.
The rising growth of players’ brand visibility and commercial interest is also something the union is talking about during collective bargaining negotiations. The labor talks could extend past the Oct. 31 deadline, which draws concern over a potential work stoppage.
While a long-term strike could undermine overall business momentum, there’s still a scenario where lost games would benefit 2K stakeholders because fans will crave access, similar to how the COVID-19 pandemic initially accelerated online consumption and video game usage.
Advertisement
The union and the league hope that this possibility won’t become a reality as they look to grow the business together through new and existing partnership like this latest 2K edition.
Best of Sportico.com
Sign up for Sportico’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
