The WNBA Draft on Monday night lost half of the audience seen last year with Caitlin Clark going No. 1 overall, but was still easily the league’s second-best draft audience on record. The audience performance for the draft was similar to what ESPN saw around the recent NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.
ESPN drew 1.25 million viewers for the WNBA Draft, which saw UConn G Paige Bueckers go No. 1. That’s down 49% from last year, but 108% better than what is now the No. 3 draft audience (2004 on ESPN, with 601,000 viewers). ESPN also was up 119% from 2023 (572,000 viewers), when South Carolina F Aliyah Boston went No. 1 (that’s now the No. 4 draft all-time). Most WNBA Draft audience figures in the past were well under 500,000 viewers.
Monday night’s draft audience peaked at 1.46 million viewers. The draft was the No. 1 primetime program (cable or broadcast) among males 18-34, males 18-49 and adults 18-49. “WNBA Countdown” headed into the draft averaged 647,000 viewers.
For a comparison, the WNBA Draft audience is bigger than any audience the MLB Draft has seen. The high for the MLB Draft is 1.03 million back in 2021. Last year, the MLB Draft averaged just 863,000 viewers on ESPN/MLB Network. The 2025 WNBA Draft is also 84% better than the best NHL Draft on record (that was 681,000 viewers on ESPN in 2023 when the Blackhawks selected Connor Bedard No. 1 overall).
