Caitlin Clark may not have won in her WNBA debut, but she did manage to set another viewership record on Tuesday night.
Clark’s debut with the Indiana Fever drew 2.1 million viewers on ESPN2 on Tuesday, making it the most-watched WNBA game on ESPN or ABC in history. The network announced. The game peaked at about 2.3 million viewers, and the doubleheader was up nearly 200% from last year’s regular season average. The contest was also the most-watched WNBA game anywhere since 2001, According to Sports Media Watch.
By comparison, last year’s WNBA Finals — which were the most-watched WNBA Finals in two decades — averaged 730,000 viewers.
Attention is nothing new for Clark. While leading Iowa to its second straight national championship game earlier this spring, Clark and the Hawkeyes set three straight viewership records. Their loss to South Carolina in the national championship game drew 18.7 million viewers, peaking at about 24 million viewers — making it the most-watched basketball game, for men or women at any level, since 2019.
The WNBA draft attracted nearly 2.5 million viewers as well, which broke the previous record of about 600,000 viewers from two decades ago.
The WNBA is clearly poised to increase viewership as well. The Fever will play 36 of their 40 regular season games on national television.
Clark finished with a team-high 20 points in the Fever’s 92-71 loss to the Connecticut Sun on Tuesday night, but she committed 10 turnovers — the most in a WNBA debut in league history. She shot 5 of 15 from the field and 4 of 11 from behind the arc.
Clark and the Fever will host the New York Liberty in their home opener on Thursday night. This game will be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.
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