The Women’s National Basketball Association’s viewership and attendance soared during the 2024 season, as the league’s popularity soared thanks to young stars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.

The competition’s matches attracted more than 54 million unique viewers, a record, across several networks, including Disney‘ABC and ESPN, Paramount global’s CBS, E.W. Scripps’ Including Ion and NBA TV, according to data released by the WNBA on Friday.

Additionally, WNBA game attendance reached a 22-year high and grew nearly 50% from the 2023 season, according to the league. There were 154 sellouts during the year, more than triple the 45 sellouts in 2023.

This season’s explosive numbers and popularity came with a top rookie class that included Clark of the Indiana Fever and Reese of the Chicago Sky, and as the Las Vegas Aces made a bid for their third straight championship. The numbers underscore why the league was able to land a lucrative new media rights deal and is in an expansion phase: The WNBA announced this month that it will add a 15th team in Portland for the 2026 season.

As attention to the league increased, more players said they had experienced online harassment or racism. Asked about the dynamic on CNBC earlier this month, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert did not explicitly condemn the vitriol toward players, leading to criticism from around the league.

She later clarified that she is against “hate or racism.”

Clark’s impact was also reflected in the Fever’s attendance figures. Every WNBA team experienced double-digit attendance increases year-over-year. However, the Fever experienced a more than four-fold jump, significantly more than the 69% growth of the Los Angeles Sparks, who were ranked second by the WNBA.

The WNBA also saw significant growth in merchandise and social engagement during the season. The WNBA’s social media accounts attracted nearly 2 billion video views, more than quadrupling the number from the 2023 season.

The increased attention has led to a $2.2 billion media rights deal for 11 seasons, with awards reevaluated after the 2028 season, CNBC previously reported. The WNBA media rights were negotiated earlier this year within the broader NBA agreement.

During the rights negotiations — which led to a deal totaling $77 billion over 11 years — the NBA had pushed for more money for the WNBA given its rising popularity.

During the 2024 WNBA season, 22 regular-season game broadcasts averaged at least 1 million viewers.

Several individual games broke records for WNBA viewership on ESPN, and this was the most-watched regular season ever for ESPN, with an average of 1.19 million viewers, up 170% from last season, according to the league. The 2024 season featured the seven most-watched WNBA games of all time on ESPN, as well as the top two on ABC.

It was also the most-watched regular season ever for CBS Sports, with CBS Sports’ five most-watched WNBA games ever, including June’s Sky at Fever game, which averaged 2.25 million viewers.

The viewership boom continued into the postseason, when a Sept. 22 game between the Fever and Connecticut Sun drew a record crowd, according to ESPN. Clark’s Fever were eliminated in two games in the first round.

The league’s playoffs are now in the semifinals, featuring a rematch between the Aces and last year’s runners-up New York Liberty.