The WNBA is an American professional women's basketball league established in 1996 and owned by the NBA. The regular season takes place in summer from May to August and the play-offs in September. In a survey conducted in April 2024 in the United States, it was found that 44 percent of the league's fans were female.
In a survey conducted in March 2023 in the United States, 43 percent of Black respondents were casual fans of the WNBA. Since its inception in 1997, the Women’s National Basketball Association has forged a strong fanbase both in the United States as well as abroad. Individuals aged between 18 and 34 make up the highest share of avid and casual fans, compared to the 45 to 64 age group, for instance, in which 71 percent of survey participants indicated that they were not a fan of the professional sports league. Additionally, when it came to the level of interest in the WNBA by gender, the WNBA was found to be more popular amongst males than females, with 11 percent of the former indicating they were avid fans of the league whereas just four percent of females indicated the same.
The 2024 Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) regular season games were watched by an average of 657 thousand viewers across media platforms in the United States. This was a significant increase from the previous year and made the 2024 season the league’s highest-viewed regular season in the last 24 years.
The WNBA is an American professional women's basketball league established in 1996 and owned by the NBA. The regular season takes place in summer from May to August and the play-offs in September. In a survey conducted in April 2024 in the United States, it was found that around half of the league's fans were aged between 18 and 34 years old.
The 2024 Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) Finals were contested between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx. The Liberty's 3-2 victory in the best-of-five championship was watched by an average of 1.57 viewers on ESPN and ABC. This was an increase of 115 percent from the previous year, when the Las Vegas secured their second WNBA championship title. For the Liberty, silverware has been harder to come by, with the franchise's win in 2024 being its first title, despite having featured in five Finals previously.
First held in 1997, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) Draft is an annual pre-season event through which teams in the league select new recruits from a pool of college and professional women's basketball players. The 2024 WNBA Draft was shown on ESPN's main network for the fifth time in a row and attracted a record high viewership of 2.45 million viewers. The main attraction for that year's Draft was college basketball superstar Caitlin Clark, who as the No.1 overall pick was selected by the Indiana Fever.
In 2023, over 60 percent of players in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) were black or African American. Meanwhile, just 1.4 percent of players in the league identified as Asian.
During the 2024 regular season, the average attendance at Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) games rose to 9,807. This marked not only an increase over the previous two years, but the highest average attendance in the last 22 years. Similarly, average TV viewership of the WNBA has also grown, having reached around 505 thousand per game in 2023, which was over double the figures from 2016 to 2021.
Founded in 1996, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a professional basketball league composed of 12 teams from the United States. The Indiana Fever registered the highest average attendance across the 2023 season with 17,036. That season, the Fever secured the services of college basketball sensation Caitlin Clark, who went on to break a series of rookie and all-time records. One such record was the number of assists made in a single WNBA game. Player salaries in the WNBA Jackie Young of the Las Vegas Aces was the highest earner in the WNBA in the 2024 season, having earned an annual salary of 252 thousand U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, looking at the average annual salaries in the WNBA vs. the NBA, the average WNBA player took home around 120 thousand U.S. dollars at the end of the year, which was nearly 100 times lower than the average NBA player salary. WNBA league records Since the opening season in 1997, former and current WNBA players have been setting high standards and surpassing old ones throughout the course of the competition. Sue Bird was the career games leader of the WNBA, having played 580 professional games prior to her retirement in 2022. Meanwhile, the WNBA's all-time scoring leader was Diana Taurasi, who began her career with the Phoenix Mercury in 2004. Overall, three WNBA teams held the record for most WNBA championships during the history of the league, all winning four championships apiece.
All-star games are exhibition matches that take place in a variety of sports to showcase some of the leagues' top players. The WNBA All-Star Game pits the top players from the Western and Eastern Conference of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) against each other in teams of 12. During a January 2020 survey in the United States, 59 percent of respondents had never watched the WNBA All-Star Game.
The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) All-Star Game drew an attendance of 16,407 in the 2024 season. This was the highest it had been since 2007 when over 19 thousand were in attendance. Breaking with tradition, the 2024 fixture was a match-up between the WNBA All-Stars and the U.S. Women's Olympic team, with All-Star Games usually not being held in years coinciding with the Summer Olympics. The game ended with the All-Stars beating the Olympians 117-109, with Dallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale being named MVP after scoring 21 points in a single quarter.
Founded in 1996, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a professional basketball league composed of 12 teams from the United States. As of September 2024, the highest attended game in WNBA regular season history came in September 2024, when the Washington Mystics hosted the Indiana Fever. In total, 20,711 individuals were in attendance.
During the 2024 season, Jackie Young of the Las Vegas Aces had the highest salary among players in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) with over 252 thousand U.S. dollars. In second place was Seattle Storm guard Jewel Loyd with 245.51 thousand U.S. dollars.
How much do WNBA rookies earn?
In the lead up to the 2024 WNBA season, one of the most pressing issues surrounding the league was the pay structure. The catalyst for this was the drafting of college basketball superstar Caitlin Clark as the No. 1 pick. Despite coming into the league as the all-time leading NCAA scorer, and potentially being the biggest draw to the league in the coming years, the WNBA's rookie salary scale dictates that Clark's base salary in her first year in the WNBA would only be a fraction of the top earners. Although Clark is likely to bolster her earnings through sponsorship deals, the league's salary structure is unlikely to change before the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) expires in 2027.
How much are men’s National Basketball Association (NBA) players paid?
Compared to the top earners in the women’s league, the picture in the men's league is a little different. Some of the highest-paid male professional basketball players take home eye-watering amounts each year. LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers currently sits at the top of the pile, earning 47.6 million U.S. dollars in the 2023/24 season for his appearances in the NBA, on top of a further 70 million U.S. dollars' worth of endorsements. Overall, average annual salaries in the NBA are much higher than in the WNBA. On average, NBA players took home more than 10 million U.S. dollars in 2023/24, while WNBA players earned roughly 116 thousand U.S. dollars in 2023.
Basketball is a commonly watched sport both in the United States and worldwide. The WNBA is an American professional women's basketball league established in 1996 and owned by the NBA. The regular season takes place in summer from May to August and the play-offs in September. WNBA has gained significant popularity over the years, which has increased its fan base and number of followers worldwide. In 2019, the Minnesota Lynx had around 328.26 thousand followers on social media channels.
During the 2024 season, the team with the highest average annual player salary in the U.S. Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) was the Connecticut Sun with 139.89 thousand U.S. dollars. The Sun reached the semi-finals in the WNBA Playoffs in the previous year, being beaten by the New York Liberty.
The NBA and WNBA are the two top leagues for basketball in the United States for men and women, respectively. In the NBA in 2024, players were paid around 50 percent of the league revenue. In comparison, players in the WNBA took home around 10 percent of the revenue generated in the league.
The NBA and WNBA are the two top leagues for basketball in the United States for men and women, respectively. In the NBA, players took home an average annual salary of over 12 million U.S. dollars for the 2023/24 season, with the league's minimum salary set at 1.16 million U.S. dollars that year. In comparison, players in the WNBA received an average annual pay of 119.59 thousand U.S. dollars, with the highest-earning players in the WNBA receiving around 252 thousand U.S. dollars annually.
College women's basketball in the United States is seen as the final step up before the WNBA. The college basketball season culminates in the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament held every March, also known as March Madness. In a survey conducted in March 2023, 11 percent of Hispanic respondents stated that they were avid fans of college women's basketball in the United States.
Founded in 1996, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a professional basketball league composed of 12 teams from the United States. Watching a home game of Seattle Storm, winners of the 2020 WNBA Finals, would set a fan back an average of 42 U.S. dollars. The average ticket price across the WNBA stood at 47 U.S. dollars.
Basketball is a commonly watched sport both in the United States and worldwide. The WNBA is an American professional women's basketball league established in 1996 and owned by the NBA. The regular season takes place in summer from May to August and the play-offs in September. WNBA has gained significant popularity over years, making it the highest paid women league worldwide. In 2019, the WNBA's average annual salary reached 75.18 thousand U.S. dollars per player and total salaries approximated to 10.83 million U.S. dollars.
The WNBA is an American professional women's basketball league established in 1996 and owned by the NBA. The regular season takes place in summer from May to August and the play-offs in September. In a survey conducted in April 2024 in the United States, it was found that 44 percent of the league's fans were female.