NBA 2K25 will feature a special-edition cover with athletes from both the NBA and WNBA for the first time in the video game’s history when it launches Sept. 6.
The standard cover will be graced by Jayson Tatum, fresh off his first NBA championship — the second Celtics player in eight years to be named to the cover after Kyrie Irving covered 2K18.
“It’s an honor to be named a cover athlete for NBA 2K25,” Tatum said in a press release. “I’ve been playing NBA 2K since I was a kid and it’s been a dream to one day be on the cover. Even after coming off an NBA championship, it’s humbling to see this come to life.”
Tatum will also be included on the special edition cover alongside A’ja Wilson, who will be the sole cover athlete for the GameStop exclusive WNBA edition.
“Being featured on the NBA 2K25 cover is a big moment for me and a testament to the ever-growing fandom of the WNBA,” Wilson said in a press release. “Seeing more and more WNBA athletes scanned into NBA 2K25 to best capture the style and confidence of the league has been empowering, and I can't wait for fans to experience it in-game.”
The video game’s inclusion of both leagues on a cover is the latest signal of the WNBA’s rising cultural cache, which many attribute to Caitlin Clark’s rookie season. However, the trend is clearly a league-wide phenomenon with average attendance up to 9,311 fans per game, according to Across the Timeline.
In addition to the league’s highest attendance totals since the late 1990s, there’s also been a massive leap in TV viewership with a 183 percent increase compared to last season, per ESPN.
NBA 2K first added WNBA teams to the game in NBA 2K20, but Wilson's cover is by far the most prominent positioning any player from the league has received in the marketing for the game.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.