The WNBA App is at an All-Time High - Revenue, Too!
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The WNBA is currently seeing an all-time high of downloads and revenue on the App Store and Google Play - at levels it's never seen before!
Downloads in the first 5(ish) months of 2024 are already higher than all of 2023 as well as 2016 - 2022 combined. I've got all the numbers below + a look at how we got here.
The WNBA app never truly managed to get a lot of traction with yearly downloads hovering around 50K, according to our estimates. Yes, just 50K for a whole year.
2023 changed that because in 2023 the WNBA overhauled their app, turning it into a true destination for women's basketball. And yes, they also started streaming games, following the trend of the NBA, NFL, F1, and many others.
The overhaul and streaming sent downloads up nearly 400% year over year. In more absolute terms, the app saw nearly 300K new downloads, according to our estimates.
Revenue followed. In 2023, net revenue - what's left after store fees - rose 37% to $318K, according to our estimates. Almost 3x higher than 2017.
But then Caitlin Clark got drafted by the Indiana Fever and things got even better. If you're not familiar, Caitlin Clark is one of the most, if not the most, popular female basketball player right now. She recently joined the WNBA, moving all of that excitement from the collegiate level to the big court.
And now that everyone can stream her games right from their phones, they are.
The WNBA app was downloaded nearly 500K times from the App Store and Google Play between January and May 25th, according to our estimates. We're not even five months in and downloads have already surpassed all of 2023's, which was already high. In fact, downloads in 2024 outpaced 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 combined.
And those downloads are engaged and active, contributing to an increase in net revenue of more than 150%. According to our estimates, users spent more than $1.2M in the app so far in 2024. That's a little more than $800K that the WNBA gets after store fees.
This isn't the first, or last, example of sports moving in-app. I remember how sports on TV improved over the years and can only imagine how streaming will improve thanks to this. And while this unexpected surge has led to technical difficulties, I don't expect it to slow down any time soon.
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All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.
