The WNBA Announces New 2025 Playoff Format

Stretching the Season

The most recent WNBA news concerns the expansion of the regular season schedule for the third time in the last four years. In 2021, the WNBA scheduled 32 regular season contests before jumping to 36 in 2022 and then 40 in 2023 and 2024.

But on Thursday before Game 1 of the WNBA Finals between the Minnesota Lynx and New York Liberty, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced there will be 44 WNBA games on next year’s regular season slate.

More hoops anyone? 🏀 👀

In case you missed it, we announced some big changes for next season:

1. First round of WNBA Playoffs Presented by Google will move to 1-1-1 configuration
2. The WNBA Finals presented by YouTube TV will now be a best-of-seven format
3. Regular-season… pic.twitter.com/gcoHSP9RYz

— WNBA (@WNBA) October 11, 2024

The playoff format will also see a few tweaks as well. There will remain eight playoff spots and a three-round format, with the opening round still being a best-of-three series. However, unlike this year’s postseason where the higher-seeded team hosted the first two games with the lower-seeded team hosting the rubber match if there is one, next year will see the higher-seeded team host Game 1 and the lower-seeded team host Game 2. Should a Game 3 be necessary, it would be held at the higher-seeded team’s home court.

This will guarantee lower-seeded teams an opportunity to hold at least one playoff game, which was not the case this year as all the lower-seeded teams were swept 2-0 in the opening round.

There will be no change for the best-of-five semifinals, which have a 2-2-1 format, but the big news is that the WNBA Finals will move from a best-of-five to a best-of-seven series featuring a 2-2-1-1-1 structure.

 Soaring Popularity

The impetus to add more regular and postseason games has everything to do with the league’s meteoric rise in popularity. Caitlin Clark, college basketball’s most prolific scorer regardless of gender, entered as the No. 1 overall pick of the Indiana Fever and has attracted legions of new WNBA fans.

If you don’t rock with Caitlin Clark game you’re just a FLAT OUT HATER!!!!! Stay far away from them people!! PLEASE

— LeBron James (@KingJames) April 7, 2024

According to reports, more than 2.3 million fans attended games this season, which is the highest combined attendance in 22 years. Last year there were only 45 sellouts, but this year the league reported 154 packed houses. Not surprisingly, Caitlin Clark’s Fever led the league with an average attendance of 17,000, while 10 of their games set league TV viewership records. In the 22 games this season that boasted viewership north of 1 million, Caitlin Clark appeared in 19 of those contests.

Expansion is also coming to the league, the first time since 2008 when the Atlanta Dream made its debut, as the Golden State Valkyries will enter the fold in 2025  as the WNBA’s 13th franchise. And in 2026, two more franchises will be added, with the Portland Fire reentering the league under new ownership after folding its tent more than two decades ago, while Toronto (currently without a name) will also see women’s professional basketball.

The game deciding shot by Napheesa Collier is NASTY 😈

THE @minnesotalynx TAKE GAME 1 OF THE #WNBAFinals presented by @YouTubeTV WITH A FINAL SCORE OF 95-93 pic.twitter.com/4DO4NXLoG5

— WNBA (@WNBA) October 11, 2024

Commissioner Engelbert commented on the timing of the expansion and extending the season, saying, “The league’s growth and increased demand for WNBA basketball make this the ideal time to expand the schedule, lengthen the finals, and provide fans more opportunities to see the best players in the world compete at the highest level.“