WNBA viewership surge continues behind Caitlin Clark and Indiana Fever

The WNBA season is in full swing, and Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever have delivered strong viewership for the league.

In primetime on Saturday, the New York Liberty-Indiana Fever matchup averaged 2.58 million viewers on CBS. The game is the most-watched WNBA telecast ever on CBS, and the second-most-watched WNBA game this season, behind Fever-Las Vegas Aces (2.64 million) last Sunday on NBC and Peacock.

Overall, the game is the third-most-watched WNBA regular season game since 2000. Chicago Sky-Fever to open last season on ABC is the most-watched with 2.70 million viewers.

On other networks this week, games featuring Clark and the Fever also posted record viewership. On Wednesday, the Golden State Valkyries-Fever matchup on USA Network averaged 1.14 million viewers. According to Sports Media Watch, that is the most-watched game on USA Network this season.

On Friday, regional action on Ion featuring the Seattle Storm-Fever, Atlanta Dream-Toronto Tempo and Los Angeles Sparks-Sky averaged 1.02 million viewers. That is also the most-watched WNBA game on the network this season, according to SMW.

Other nationally televised WNBA games featured slightly lower viewership. Sparks-Dream on USA Network on Monday averaged 455,000 viewers. That game faced competition from the Home Run Derby on Netflix.

On Sunday, which saw a tripleheader of games on ABC, CBS, and ESPN, Sparks-Dallas Wings on ABC averaged 975,000 viewers, Sky-Dream on ABC (against the World Cup Final) averaged 792,000 viewers, and Connecticut Sun-Phoenix Mercury on ESPN averaged 597,000 viewers.

But even that relatively lower non-Clark viewership is still strong for the WNBA. Both Sparks-Dream and Sun-Mercury on cable, for example, were up from last year’s cable average of 435,000 viewers.

Still, Caitlin Clark continues to raise the viewership ceiling for the WNBA.

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