WNBA ratings fell off a cliff after star player Caitlin Clark's first year in the league officially ended.
Clark's Indiana Fever successfully delivered the most-watched WNBA game in history on cable with 2.5 million viewers for Game 2 against the Connecticut Sun on September 25 . The game's peak audience was 3.4 million viewers.
After the Fever's loss, the first game of the next playoff round between the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces on September 29 drew only a small number of viewers, despite being a rematch of the 2023 WNBA Finals. The number remained at 929,000.
According to new york postthe semifinals remained the most-watched WNBA semifinals in the past 22 years.
Meanwhile, the first semifinal game between the Minnesota Lynx and Connecticut Sun averaged about 650,000 viewers. daily mail Reported.
Both semifinals pale in comparison to Clark's first playoff game on Sept. 22, which drew 1.84 million viewers.
This reflects the Clark effect that has existed in the WNBA all season. Viewers and attendees followed her wherever she went.
The top 14 most-watched games of the WNBA season all featured Clark's Indiana Fever.
Throughout the first weekend of June, Clark made headlines for tripling the average number of viewers for a WNBA game each time he played. Games with Clark averaged 1.099 million viewers, while games without her averaged just 414,000 viewers.
The latter still exceeded the league's 2023 season average of 301,000 viewers.
Clark also caused significant increases in ticket prices when playing in other teams' arenas.
In May, Clark's presence caused the price of a Sun game to jump a shocking 469% compared to the lowest ticket price for an upcoming game against Connecticut.
When I visited Brooklyn's Barclays Center for the New York Liberty performance, ticket prices increased 300% from $21 to $84.
In Seattle, prices rose from $26 to $70 (169%) when Clark came to town.
When Indiana visited the Las Vegas Aces on May 25, ticket prices were 2,200% higher than the Aces' next home game. 92 until it drops to just $4.
At the same time, Clark's teams led the league in attendance, with an average attendance of nearly 5,000 more participants per game than the next highest franchise.
Despite all the fuss, 2024 is expected to be the WNBA's most expensive season. It was estimated that the league was preparing to lose $50 million from the season, which included players complaining that they didn't like chartered flights or private planes.
Typically, the league loses only $10 million, which remains in subsidies to the NBA.
Clark finished the season averaging 19.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 8.4 assists per game. She had the most assists in the league.
