The WNBA is expanding. The league announced Tuesday that the regular season will jump from 44 games to 50 games starting in 2027. By 2029, it will climb to 52.
That is six extra games in 2027. Eight extra by the end of the decade. It is the kind of move that signals a league in real growth mode.
Commissioner Cathy Engelbert framed the change exactly the way you would expect. “This reflects the extraordinary momentum we are seeing across the league,” she said. The numbers back her up. Attendance is up. TV ratings are up. Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, A’ja Wilson, and Angel Reese have given the league four of the most marketable stars in basketball.
The expansion was baked into the new seven-year collective bargaining agreement signed in May. That deal raised salaries, added charter flights for every team, and now adds more games. Players got serious wins across the board.
There is a real basketball question buried in here. More games means more revenue, but it also means more wear on a league already battling load management debates. The WNBA season is short and packed. Stretching it to 50 games will require schedule reform.
The league has said the 2027 schedule details will come later. Expect a longer regular season window. Expect an All-Star break that actually feels like a break. Expect at least one team to push for more back-to-back game spacing.
The postseason is also getting a face lift in 2026 already. Eight teams advance. The first round becomes a best-of-three with a 1-1-1 format. Semifinals jump to best-of-five. The Finals move to a best-of-seven, 2-1-1-1 series. That is the playoff format the league has needed for years.
Casual basketball fans have been quietly noticing the WNBA’s run. The 2025 Finals between Las Vegas and New York drew the highest ratings in the league’s history. This year’s race shapes up even better. Indiana with a healthy Caitlin Clark is must-watch. Dallas with Paige Bueckers is must-watch. The Aces are still the Aces.
More games puts more product on TV. ESPN, Disney, Amazon, and NBC are now all in the WNBA business. Their media deal jumped to $200 million per year. The league cannot afford to leave inventory on the table.
Critics will say 50 games is too many. They will point to player workload, to travel, to the Olympic schedule disrupting the season every four years. Those are fair concerns. The CBA at least addresses some of them with charter flights and bigger rosters.
The bigger picture matters more. The WNBA is finally being treated like a real professional league. More games. More money. More playoff games. Better travel. Bigger media deals. None of this was true five years ago.
2027 will not be the WNBA’s final form. But it will be the most basketball the league has ever played. That is a win.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
