WNBA announces new playoff format and 44-game regular season schedule to begin in 2025 | News, results, highlights, statistics and rumors

Both the WNBA's regular season and playoff schedules will change in 2025, commissioner Cathy Engelbert told reporters in a news conference Thursday before the start of the WNBA Finals between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx.

The regular season will expand from 40 to 44 games next year when the Golden State Valkyries become the 13th franchise to join the WNBA.

The playoffs will continue to feature an eight-team field in a three-round format.

However, in the best-of-three first round, each match will now see the higher seeded team hosting Game 1, followed by the lower seeded team hosting Game 2. The higher seeded team will then host Game 3 if necessary.

This is a change from the current playoff format, in which the higher seed hosted Games 1 and 2. The lower seeded team would then host Game 3 if necessary.

However, Game 3 wasn't necessary this year as all four first-round meetings ended in two-game rounds, leaving the lower seeded team unable to host a game.

Nothing changes for the best-of-five semi-finals, which take place in a 2-2-1 format. However, the WNBA Finals will now be played in a best-of-seven format with a 2-2-1-1-1 structure.

The changes to the playoff format come with obvious benefits.

As previously mentioned, the lower seeded team was never guaranteed a home game. However, a lower seeded team also had the advantage of finishing the series at home, which seemed like an unfair disadvantage. Ideally, the higher seeded team would get this right due to a better record. This is ultimately the case in the semi-finals and the final.

However, the new playoff format eliminates these problems. Additionally, it is a good move that the WNBA Finals will now be played in a best-of-seven format, allowing the league's top two teams more matchups to determine the champion. This is the first time in league history that a playoff round was played in a best-of-seven format, the standard in the NBA.

Meanwhile, the WNBA's regular season game growth continues to climb, from 32 in 2021 to 36 in 2022 to 40 in 2023 and 2024. Now the league is moving up to 44.

Other previously announced changes will also be implemented later in the 2020s, with Toronto and Portland, Oregon, joining the league as the 14th and 15th teams in 2026.