After a record-breaking season, the WNBA’s winning streak continues.
A new report from data analytics firm Morning Consult, which tracks how consumers perceive thousands of brands every day, reveals that no brand reputation grew as much in 2024 as that of the WNBA.
“It’s rare for a sports league to come up with the type of rankings we publish,” said Ellyn Briggs, a brand analyst at Morning Consult and co-author of the report. “We’ve certainly never had a professional women’s league.”
To generate its Fastest Growing Brands report, Morning Consult looked at how many consumers said they were considering purchasing from a brand in the third quarter compared to the first.
Although the WNBA’s purchase consideration rate remains relatively low (16.7% of U.S. adults expressed interest in the third quarter), it improved by 3.82 percentage points from the first quarter, which which gives it the greatest overall gain.
Part of the league’s growing appeal is due to higher levels of purchase consideration across several demographic groups. From men to baby boomers to individuals with annual incomes below $50,000 or above $100,000, consumer groups of all kinds are gearing up to enter the league.
Other brands that have improved their reputation among US shoppers in 2024 include Ben & Jerry’swhich saw its purchase consideration rate increase by 3.74 percentage points to 47.5%, and Bright Iced Teawhich climbs 3.67 points to 37.7%
In total, Morning Consult included more than 1,700 brands in its analysis.
How the WNBA did it
While the first pick in the draft Caitlin Clarkwith a fellow rookie Angel Reesebrought a lot of attention to the league throughout the year, much of the WNBA’s story in 2024 centered on its fan base, who came out in droves.
More than 54 million unique viewers watched the games on ABC, CBS, ESPN, ESPN2, ION and NBA TV, giving the league its largest broadcast audience in 24 years. The platforms ESPN (averaging 1.19 million per game, up 170% from 2023), CBS Sports (1.10 million, up 86%) and Scripps’ ION (670,000, up by 133%) all had their most-watched WNBA regular seasons ever.
The 2,353,735 fans who attended WNBA games represents a 48% increase from last season. League-wide, 154 sellouts represent a 242% spike.
Since a WNBA team only has 40 games on its schedule each season, no team or player can take all the credit for the league’s growing popularity.
Indeed, additional figures from Morning Consult show that the number of U.S. adults who said they had recently seen, read or heard something positive about the WNBA remained high throughout the 2024 season compared to no matter what season in recent years.
“For every organic moment they had, it seemed like they had a marketing beat ready to go,” Briggs said.
A myriad of WNBA stars have also been the faces of new brand partnerships in 2024. This year alone, Delta Air Lines, Bumble, New Balance, Skims, CarMax, DSG, Tissot, Opill, La Crema, Glossier and UWM’s Mortgage Matchup have either announced or extended deals with everyone from former basketball great Candace Parker to rookie Cameron Brink to tie their brand to the WNBA.
All of this activity has helped the league pursue a different kind of growth. In May, the WNBA announced its 2025 Bay Area expansion team, the Valkyries of the Golden State— had signed CarMax as a founding partner and Kaiser Permanente as a jersey sponsor before even drafting a single player. The league also awarded new franchises to Toronto and Portland, each paying a $50 million expansion fee to join in 2026.
In July, the WNBA renewed its broadcast deals with Disney and Amazon Prime Video and entered into a new agreement with NBCUniversal (NBCU), which will distribute games on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, the upcoming direct-to-consumer service of ESPN, NBC, Peacock. , and Prime Video. The entire agreement is apparently worth $2.2 billion.
As the WNBA expands to a 44-game season and a seven-game Finals next year, and its stars shoes And filming garner increased attention: Brand growth in popularity and value continues to be a team effort.
