WNBA breaks single-season attendance record

The Women’s National Basketball Association has officially broken its single-season attendance record, attracting upwards of 2.5 million fans to games around the country so far this year, the league announced Thursday. 

The new record, set on Wednesday, accounts for crowds that attended 226 WNBA games in 2025 involving 13 teams, according to a social media post shared by the WNBA. The previous record, set in 2002, was reached after considerably more games — 256 — and involved more teams — 16 teams — than the new record.

This latest milestone follows what WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert in June described as an increasing public demand for women’s basketball.  At the time, the league shared its plans to expand from 15 teams next year to 18 teams by 2030, with new teams in Portland, Toronto, Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia, as part of a “commitment to growing the game, increasing opportunities for players, and bringing professional women’s basketball to new and passionate fanbases in more cities.”

The Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia teams’ inclusion in the league is pending approval by the WNBA and NBA Boards of Governors. If they are approved, Cleveland will start to play in 2028, followed by teams in Detroit and Philadelphia in 2029 and 2030, according to the WNBA. The Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire, which had been previously announced, are both set to start playing in 2026.

“The demand for women’s basketball has never been higher, and we are thrilled to welcome Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia to the WNBA family,” Engelbert said in a statement. “This historic expansion is a powerful reflection of our league’s extraordinary momentum, the depth of talent across the game, and the surging demand for investment in women’s professional basketball.”