Nielsen puts WNBA Finals Game 1 at 1.76 million viewers on NBC, below ESPN's 2025 opener

Nielsen said on October 26, 2026, that Game 1 of this year's WNBA Finals, between the Atlanta Dream and the Golden State Valkyries, “delivered 1.76 million viewers on NBC” on October 17. In the same short note, which it described as a clarification of an NBC press release, Nielsen said the most-watched Game 1 of a WNBA Finals was ESPN's broadcast on October 3, 2025, with 1.86 million viewers.

NBC had announced on October 21 that the game averaged a Total Audience Delivery, or TAD, of 2.1 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, “making it the most-watched WNBA Finals Game 1 ever.” NBC said the figure was based on Nielsen Big Data + Panel data plus digital data from Adobe Analytics, and was up 11% on last year's Game 1. It repeated the record claim on October 28, in a release on Game 4.

Two counts for the same game

The two figures for this year's opener differ by about 340,000 viewers (our calculation). NBC's release does not say how much of its total came from Peacock or other digital viewing. On Nielsen's figures alone, the 2026 opener drew about 5% fewer viewers than ESPN's 2025 Game 1 (our calculation).

The difference comes down to what is counted. Nielsen's 1.76 million covers the NBC broadcast. NBC's 2.1 million covers NBC and Peacock together and adds a second data source for digital viewing.

What Nielsen's measure covers

Nielsen describes Big Data + Panel as combining viewing data from set-top boxes and smart TVs with a panel of real people. Its U.S. big data set draws on about 45 million households and 75 million devices from Comcast, Dish, DIRECTV, Roku and Vizio, Nielsen says, alongside a panel of 101,000 people in about 42,000 households. Nielsen says its data scientists check the big data against the panel to correct for bias and gaps.

Nielsen also publishes The Gauge, a monthly report on how U.S. audiences spend their TV time across platforms and media distributors. For how that report is built, see how Nielsen's Gauge measures TV viewing.

NBC's other WNBA figures

Nielsen's note addresses Game 1 only. NBC aired Games 1 and 4 of the Finals, while Game 3 and Games 5 to 7 were scheduled on USA Network with a Peacock simulstream, according to NBC. This is NBC Sports' first season covering the WNBA since 2002.

NBC also noted that the WNBA's 1997 winner-take-all championship game, which it aired, averaged 2.85 million viewers. The league adopted a championship series format in 1998.