The WNBA’s popularity continues to rise as a Sunday afternoon matchup between the Chicago Sky and the Seattle Storm produced 755,000 viewers, the most-watched regular season game since 2012.
This comes in spite of the two of the Storm’s top players, reigning WNBA Finals MVP Breanna Stewart and WNBA career assist leader Sue Bird, each sitting out the game (rest).
“It was a great game, I was going crazy at home. We consistently as a league are breaking records in terms of viewership and outdoing the expectations in a lot of different categories. Hopefully we can get a place where we aren’t outdoing them, but it’s expected to be done.”
Sue Bird on the Chicago Sky-Seattle Storm milestone
This was the first WNBA game post All-Star/Olympic break airing in the afternoon on ABC. The Chicago Sky came away victorious, winning 87-85 in overtime on their home floor.
Allie Quigley played incredible for the Sky scoring 17 points off the bench connecting on five 3-pointers adding eight rebounds and four assists.
Jewell Loyd refused to rest persevering through fatigue after returning from winning a gold medal with Team USA in the Olympics to give the Storm a chance to win in her home state. She scored 26 points on a rough 7-for-30 shooting while also recording a season-high five steals.