With Unrivaled’s opening weekend come and gone, the new winter 3×3 professional league co-founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart averaged 313,000 viewers in its opening game between Stewart’s Mist Basketball Club and Collier’s Lunar Owls Basketball Club, TNT Sports said Tuesday. The league said viewership peaked at 364,000 viewers during its first game.
Unrivaled’s second game Friday between Rhyne Howard’s Vinyl Basketball Club and Chelsea Gray’s Rose Basketball Club averaged 311,000 viewers. Both are the most-watched women’s basketball games ever to air on TNT Sports, the parties said. And according to Sports Media Watch, the opening games outpaced last year’s average WNBA regular-season game on cable by 50 percent, excluding games involving Caitlin Clark (who is not playing in Unrivaled).
Collier and Stewart founded the league in the hope that it will become a viable alternative for WNBA players’ overseas offseasons. Throughout the weekend, participants gushed about the league’s emphasis on player experience.
After signing a six-year agreement worth $100 million with Warner Bros. Discovery this fall, TNT and TruTV will broadcast Unrivaled games throughout the season, while Max will offer streaming. Games will air on TNT on Friday and…
