SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – AUGUST 31: Injured Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever talks to Aliyah Boston #7 during their game against the Golden State Valkyries at Chase Center on August 31, 2025 in San Francisco, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
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The 2025 Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) season broke records when it comes to popularity, fandom, and growth. This year, the league surpassed 3 million fans in total attendance, marking its first-ever season above the three-million threshold and averaging roughly 11,000 fans per game, the highest in league history. On television, ESPN reported its most-watched WNBA regular season and postseason in more than two decades, with the regular season averaging 1.3 million viewers and the Finals averaging 1.5 million. While fans filled arenas and watched from home, another record-breaking story was unfolding online.
After noticing the growing popularity of the WNBA across social media, social agency STN Digital and analytics and measurement platform Zoomph teamed up to quantify the league’s online impact with the newly released “WNBA Social Rankings and Insights Report.” The research analyzes how every team performed across social media during the 2025 season and identifies which clubs and content pieces generated the most engagement, impressions, and estimated media value.
STN Digital and Zoomph evaluated official team-owned accounts on Instagram, X, Facebook, and YouTube and tracked more than 20,000 pieces of content published during the 2025 WNBA season, between May 16 and September 11, 2025.
“The WNBA is on a meteoric rise right now,” said David Brickley, CEO of STN Digital. “The valuations of these franchises are increasing dramatically. The ratings on television are better than they ever have been…and I think there’s no better time to look at what’s happening on social media.”
Using a modeled “Social Value” metric, the study calculated the estimated paid-media equivalent value created by organic posts, factoring in impressions, video views, and engagements to benchmark what the same exposure would cost through advertising.
Indiana Fever Top the League in Social Value
The findings revealed that the Indiana Fever led the league with an estimated $55.04 million in Social Value, 38.73 million engagements, and 1.17 billion impressions during the 2025 season. The top five teams by Social Value were: Indiana Fever ($55.04M), Dallas Wings ($8.61M), Las Vegas Aces ($7.64M), Minnesota Lynx ($7.54M), and Chicago Sky ($6.35M).
Worth noting: STN Digital played a supporting role in the Indiana Fever’s social strategy during the 2025 season, working with Pacers Sports & Entertainment on key campaigns and providing unique social content to connect fans to the team through social media.
Dallas Shows Largest Year-Over-Year Gains
Ranking second in total Social Value were the Dallas Wings, posting the most dramatic growth year-over-year, increasing engagements by 505%, impressions by 251%, and Social Value by 344% compared to 2024. Brickley noted that the addition of Paige Bueckers, the No. 1 overall pick and 2025 Rookie of the Year, sparked the surge.
“Bringing in a star-studded athlete like [Paige] onto a roster to get people’s attention, and then parlaying that into different stories; that’s what great social strategy looks like,” said Brickley. “It’s really exciting to see people get invested at the college level and then follow [athletes] in droves to their next stop in the W.”
What’s Trending League-Wide
Beyond leaderboard metrics, the report offers a deeper look at how WNBA teams are driving fan engagement online. Across X and Facebook, static posts significantly outperformed video, with photos making up 18 of the top 20 posts on X and 15 of the top 20 on Facebook. On average, photo posts delivered nearly twice the engagement of videos, performing 1.9 times higher on X and 1.8 times on Facebook.
On Instagram, cross-league collaborations proved especially powerful: five of the top six team posts featured WNBA-NBA crossover moments.
In addition to analyzing overall Social Value of each team, the report also lists each club’s single most valuable post. Top examples include an Indiana Fever YouTube video (estimated $733,594 Social Value) and an Atlanta Dream Instagram video (estimated $226,555).
Brickley noted that the WNBA’s blend of on-court performance and off-court storytelling has helped the league and its teams tap into new audiences across every social media platform.
“The WNBA’s incredible momentum shows no signs of slowing down, as the league continues to shatter attendance and social engagement records driven by excitement around the game by both diehards and casual fans,” said Brickley.
The full “WNBA Social Rankings and Insights Report” is available for download now through STN Digital’s website.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinefitzgerald/2025/10/31/stn-digital-and-zoomph-release-2025-wnba-social-rankings-and-insights-report/
