The WNBA All-Star Game Was What The Kids Call 'A Banger' And The Ratings Show It

The WNBA All-Star Game is in the books, with the WNBA All-Stars topping the Olympic-bound US national team 117-109,and that sound you heard over the last couple of days may have been the league brass popping champagne bottles because the ratings are in, and they're massive.

This year's edition of the All-Star Game pitted the United States Women's National Basketball Team against a team of WNBA (read: all the players who just missed out on making the national team) and it also served as the first time heated rivals and Rookie of the Year candidates Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever and Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky found themselves on the same team.

So, going into the All-Star weekend, there were more than a few compelling storylines on hand, something that can't be said for All-Star games in most other leagues.

That appears to have done the trick, and Saturday night's game averaged 3.44 million on ABC according to Nielsen.

That's the second-biggest audience in the league's history, behind Day 2 of its existence, which saw 3.59 million people tune into NBC to watch the Charlotte Sting (who aren't even around anymore) take on the Phoenix Mercury in June of 1997.

Sure, it helps that the All-Star Game was on network TV this year, but as I said, those compelling storylines helped get viewers in the proverbial door, and once they were in, the game itself made them stick around.

Jonquel Jones #35, Arike Ogunbowale #24, Aliyah Boston #7, DeWanna Bonner #24 and Caitlin Clark #22 of Team WNBA helped stun the United States Olympic team on Saturday night. (Photo by Juan Ocampo/NBAE via Getty Images)

I watched the game on Saturday and didn't expect to enjoy it nearly as much as I did. All-Star games are usually snooze fests, but the format they used this year (which was most recently used ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021) meant that the players on the WNBA Team had some serious chips on their shoulders.

That seems to have led to some monumental performances, most notably, Arike Ogunbowale of the Dallas Wings — who removed herself from the Olympic pool because she said the selection process was too political — setting an All-Star game scoring record with 34 points, all of which came in the second half.

Meanwhile, Clark came one shy of the All-Star assists record with 10, while Reese had herself a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

I don't know if they can recapture what they had this year, but the All-Star Game turned out to be a massive success for the WNBA.