WNBA attendance skyrockets to highest ever in 6 years

As the WNBA continues to grow, spectators are tuning in more and more, so much so, this season a record was set with the highest attendance rate in six years. Also, there was an increase in social media interaction and merchandise for the 2017 regular season.

The main reason for the increase in attendance and views is the inclusion of live Twitter games (20 this season), the launch of the first one-day fantasy game on FanDuel, and a livestream of a game on TIDAL. One of the biggest additions was also the excitement of full WNBA rosters being available on NBA LIVE 18.

Take a look a the categories broken down:

Attendance: The WNBA had a total attendance of 1,574,078 and the highest average attendance at 7,716. Three teams in the league grew in attendance by double-digits: Los Angeles Sparks (+17.8%), Connecticut (+15.3%) and Minnesota (+12.3%).

Social Media: On social media, approximately 14 million likes and followers was reached among all teams and players – a 15% increase. In fact, on Facebook the WNBA page, 1 million likes were reached. There were more than 679 million impressions and over 140 million video views.

Merchandise: As compared to last season, more gear was sold by 18% on WNBAStore.com.

Live Twitter game: the 2017 campaign was the first-time games were aired live on Twitter, which averaged 613,000 viewers per game. On three separate occasions, 1.1 million viewers were reached.

FanDuel: With the addition of the league being a part of the fantasy league, over 2.2 million total entries were counted in the first season.