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Caitlin Clark’s debut attracted the largest WNBA audience in 20 years, surpassing the viewership of the NHL playoffs. This record-breaking event highlighted the growing popularity of women's basketball and Clark's significant impact on the sport, drawing widespread attention and setting new benchmarks for audience engagement.
The Caitlin Clark era in the WNBA kicked off with a major splash Tuesday night.
CNN - The season opener between the Indiana Fever and Connecticut Sun attracted an average of 2.1 million viewers across ESPN2, ESPN+, and Disney+, making it the most-watched WNBA game in over two decades. This matchup also marked Disney+'s first live sports stream, peaking at 2.3 million viewers, according to ESPN.
In the game, the Sun outshone the Fever with a 92-71 victory, drawing the largest WNBA audience since the Los Angeles Sparks and Houston Comets faced off in 2001, as reported by Sports Illustrated.
Clark’s debut surpassed the competing NHL Stanley Cup playoff game between the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers, which aired on ESPN during the same period. The NHL game averaged 2 million viewers and peaked at 3.2 million, the network said.
Clark has been breaking records since her meteoric rise in the NCAA.
Last month, the NCAA women’s basketball National Championship game between Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes and the South Carolina Gamecocks drew 18.9 million viewers, setting new television ratings records.
The game became the most-watched women’s college basketball game in history and surpassed the viewership of any basketball game, including men’s and professional, since 2019, according to Nielsen.
The Clark phenomenon continued weeks later when the WNBA draft, in which she was the No. 1 overall pick, drew an average of 2.4 million viewers, shattering viewership records and far surpassing the previous all-time high of 601,000 viewers in 2004.
Clark and the Fever are set to face off against the New York Liberty on Thursday in Indianapolis.
Source: CNN
