The Caitlin Clark effect is still impacting the WNBA despite the All-Star rookie losing in a first-round sweep to the Sun in last week's playoffs.
After the second game of the Fever Sun Opening Series, Most-watched WNBA game in history The September 25 cable broadcast had 2.5 million viewers, but the league saw viewership decline at the start of the semifinal round.
Game 1 of the Liberty vs. Aces semifinal series, a rematch of the 2023 WNBA Finals, drew 929,000 viewers on Sept. 29.
Although ratings were down compared to Fever Sun's first round series, the first game of the semifinal series between Liberty and Aces had the best result. Most-watched WNBA semifinal in the past 22 years.
Clark's first WNBA playoff game, despite playing against the NFL on Sunday, saw the Sun defeat the Fever in Game 1 on Sept. 22, drawing 1.84 million viewers.
For the second game, the number of viewers reached 3.4 million.
The WNBA had its most-watched regular season in 24 years, after assembling a high-profile 2024 draft class that included Clark, Sparks center Cameron Brink, and Sky stars Angel Reese and Camila Cardoso. , ended with the highest attendance in 22 years.
The league also set records for digital consumption and merchandise sales in 2024.
Clark and Reese's college rivalry carried over into the WNBA, contributing to increased viewership, attendance, revenue and social media engagement.
Reese led the LSU Tigers to their first championship in program history in 2023 with wins over Clark and Iowa. That's when the former LSU forward famously waved his hand in front of Clark's face in a “you can't see me” gesture. At the end of the game, it helped fuel the rivalry.
The University of Iowa defeated LSU in the Elite Eight of this year's women's NCAA Tournament.
After that, the WNBA quickly rose to prominence, with teams moving games to NBA arenas to accommodate fans.
The regular season game between the Fever and Mystics held at Capital One Arena on September 19th set a WNBA single-game attendance record of 20,711.
This game was one of only three games this season to draw at least 20,000 fans, joining the 20,366 fans at the Fever Aces on July 2nd and the 20,333 at Indiana vs. Washington on June 7th. It was one of our games.
The Fever's home attendance of 340,715 was a single-season record for a WNBA team, surpassing the Liberty's 16-game home attendance record of 250,565 in 2001.
In July, the WNBA signed landmark media rights deals with The Walt Disney Company and Amazon Prime Video, as well as a new deal with NBC Universal (NBCU) worth approximately $2.2 billion over 11 years. .
In its 28th season, the WNBA reached an all-time record with more than 54 million unique viewers across ABC, CBS, ESPN, ESPN2, ION and NBA TV.
Televised coverage of a record 22 regular season games averaged at least 1 million viewers.
After the Fever rebounded from a 1-8 start to the season, Clark helped Indiana clinch its first playoff berth since 2016.
She accomplished that while etching her name in the WNBA record books after becoming the all-time leading scorer in NCAA men's and women's basketball in March of her senior year at the University of Iowa.
The Fever star set the WNBA record for most assists in both a season (337) and a game (19).
Clark became the first rookie in league history to record two triple-doubles and set single-season rookie records for points (769) and three-pointers made (122).
