The New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces are in a star-studded battle for the 2023 WNBA Championship. The stakes are as high as ever between two extremely talented teams and fans have been waiting to see these two teams face off, as indicated by the ratings for Game 1.
Game 1 of the WNBA Finals tipped off around 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 8. Despite having to compete with a full NFL slate of games starting at 1 p.m. ET for viewership, the matchup between the Liberty and the Aces reached an average of 729,000 viewers on ABC, which was the highest average of viewers any WNBA Finals Game 1 has experienced since 2000.
There is a lot of intrigue and interesting storylines to follow in this clash between the last two teams standing in the WNBA. First, 2023 WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart has a chance to solidify her title as MVP if she can lead the Liberty to a title while going up against Aces superstar A’ja Wilson, who finished third in the MVP voting by the slimmest of margins in what was a historic MVP race.
Additionally, former No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft Sabrina Ionescu has the opportunity to prove she is the franchise-altering player the Liberty thought she was when they drafted her. Only 25 years old, she has already been voted as an All-Star each of her past two seasons and would be able to solidify her status as one of the best guards in the league with a championship.
Not to mention, the Aces are trying to defend their title from last season, when they defeated the Connecticut Sun in four games in a best-of-five series.
