WNBA merchandise sales up 500% since start of 2024 regular season, per Fanatics

This year, the WNBA has seen record growth in TV ratings and ticket sales. That trend is also continuing through merchandise sales, Fanatics said.

WNBA merchandise is up more than 500%, including an increase of more than 1,000% on t-shirts and jerseys, according to the Sports Business Journal. League-specific merchandise is also up 200%, fueled by the orange hoodie with the WNBA logo on it.

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark is the top-selling player through the first half of the season, followed by Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese. New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu, Las Vegas Aces guard Kate Martin and Aces forward A’ja Wilson round out the top five best-selling players heading into the Olympic break.

The Fever, Sky, Liberty and Aces are also the top four selling teams in the league – nearly perfectly in line with the best-selling players. The Seattle Storm came in at No. 5.

This year’s WNBA rookie class continues to generate excitement. Heralded as one of the top rookie classes in recent memory, Clark and Reese are leading the way and starting a Rookie of the Year debate. Their rivalry, which began in college, is also leading to record-setting TV viewership.

Clark and the Fever helped set multiple records and have 14 of the 16 broadcasts to top 1 million viewers this year. Wednesday night’s game against the Dallas Wings averaged 1.7 million viewers. But Clark’s last two matchups against Reese and the Sky sit above the rest. They became the two most-watched WNBA games in 25 years, including a record 2.30 million people tuning in for the June 23 matchup in Chicago.

That surge in popularity came as the WNBA was negotiating its next media rights deal. Those negotiations resulted in an agreement this week, according to The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov.

The WNBA’s next media rights deal is set to begin in 2026 and will be worth $2.2 billion over 11 years, according to The Athletic. With an average value of $200 million per year, which is a major increase from the $50 million payouts under the current agreement with Disney, ION, CBS and Amazon.

While Disney and Amazon will be part of the new deal, along with newcomer NBC, the WNBA could sell two more rights packages to make an additional $60 million per year, per The Athletic. Of course, there’s also the potential of four more games per team as the league considers moving to 44 games in a season, which could add even more value.