USA Sports said Saturday that Game 6 of the WNBA Finals drew an average of 1.5 million viewers on Thursday. I’ll admit, that figure caught my attention.
The game started at 12:30 p.m. Eastern — 9:30 a.m. in the Golden State Valkyries’ home market — yet reportedly drew more viewers than last year’s primetime championship-deciding game?
According to USA Sports, yes: Game 6’s audience was 4% larger. The total combines viewers on USA Network, E! and SYFY with streaming, led by Peacock. The announcement didn’t say how many watched on television versus online.
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USA Sports and NBC Sports have highlighted strong audiences throughout the Finals, and the league’s public relations staff has also circulated the announcements through an NBA employee.
NBC described Game 1’s 2.1 million viewers as the biggest audience ever for a Finals opener. USA Sports said Game 3 averaged 1.71 million, its largest audience for that game since 1999 and the biggest ever on cable. As with the Game 6 figure, those totals combine television and streaming.
NBC also called Game 4 between the Valkyries and Atlanta Dream the most-watched Game 4 in WNBA Finals history, reporting 1.9 million viewers across NBC and Peacock. The announcement said that was 14% above the previous record: 1.67 million for the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx on ESPN in 2024.
There’s a difference worth noting. ESPN requires a paid subscription, while NBC is available over the air at no charge. This year’s game was also available on Peacock.
Sports Media Watch reported that NBC’s television audience was 1.66 million, a little below the earlier ESPN record. Streaming accounted for another 232,000 viewers, measured separately by Adobe Analytics. Adding that figure brought NBC’s combined total above the old record, though the release didn’t provide the television-streaming breakdown.
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I wrote about the challenges of comparing these figures in July, after CBS and NBC each claimed to have the season’s largest WNBA audience.
Even the Nielsen figures aren’t always measured the same way. In 2025, Nielsen made Big Data + Panel its standard, combining its household panel with information from smart TVs and set-top boxes in 45 million households. The 2024 ESPN figure was recorded before that system became standard.
Nielsen also expanded its out-of-home measurement in 2025, from 66% to all of the contiguous U.S. television population. That includes viewing in places like bars and restaurants. Then, on Aug. 31 this year, Nielsen introduced another change designed to better measure group viewing, using wearable devices that detect television audio.
Nielsen says the changes are meant to improve accuracy, not to guarantee higher ratings. Still, if improved measurement counts someone who was already watching the WNBA, that doesn’t mean a new fan has appeared.
USA Sports promoted Monday’s 1.4 million viewers across USA Network, CNBC and Peacock as the second-largest audience ever for a Finals Game 5. Its announcement noted that the 2024 Liberty-Lynx clincher remains the record-holder. It didn’t mention that game’s audience: 2.15 million on ESPN, roughly 35% higher than this year’s reported total.
The 2024 Finals were a best-of-five series, so Game 5 decided the championship. The league expanded to best-of-seven in 2025, and this year’s series was tied 2-2 before Game 5, meaning neither team could win the title that night. Monday’s game also competed with Cowboys-Eagles on “Monday Night Football,” which attracted 18.8 million viewers, as well as the World Series, with 8.3 million, and NBA regular-season games.
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The USA Sports announcement did point to an 8% increase over Game 2. It also called Game 5 the “third consecutive game that USA Sports has posted record viewership.”
The releases cite Adobe Analytics for streaming audiences, but they don’t identify an independent verifier or include the underlying data.
Adobe’s documentation describes an average-minute audience calculation based on viewing time divided by the length of the content or a chosen reporting period. Its software allows customers to set reporting windows and, for some calculations, decide whether viewing time includes commercials.
NBC’s announcement doesn’t say which settings were used or explain how the streaming calculation was aligned with its television measurement.
Michael Mulvihill, Fox’s president of insights and analytics, wrote on X that Nielsen had told clients: “Mixing internal or third-party data with Nielsen metrics to make comparative statements in the press is not permissible.” He added that he hoped the policy would be “rigorously enforced during football season.”
In its Sept. 14 announcement about the NFL season opener, NBC said the combined NBC and Peacock audience used “Nielsen Big Data inclusive of first party data.” Its WNBA releases, however, combine Nielsen and Adobe figures. NBC should clarify what independent checks apply to the WNBA streaming numbers and how the resulting record claims comply with Nielsen’s policy.
For Game 6, USA Sports cited Nielsen’s “panel-only” data alongside Adobe Analytics. Its releases for Games 2, 3 and 5 used Nielsen Big Data + Panel figures as well as Adobe data.
Nielsen says Big Data + Panel figures usually take two to three days to become available, and its press policy permits preliminary reporting for single-day events. It’s possible the panel-only number was an early estimate while USA Sports waited for a final figure. But the Game 6 announcement doesn’t say that, label the number as preliminary or explain why the measurement method changed.
Game 6 was moved from 8 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. so it could be played at State Farm Arena, where the Hawks had a game that evening. When the change was announced, the WNBA and NBA said they would work with broadcasters on a coordinated effort to promote the new start time. The earlier tipoff also kept the game from going head-to-head with “Thursday Night Football.”
USA Sports is confident enough in the figure to rank Game 6 as the fifth-most-watched WNBA Finals game on cable. It should be able to clarify whether that number is final — and how much of the audience actually watched on cable.
