Even with all of her on-court accolades, Caitlin Clark’s biggest impact on the WNBA was felt on the league’s viewership numbers — and she ended the season in record style, according to The Athletic.
ESPN’s coverage of the Connecticut Sun’s Game 2 win over the Indiana Fever delivered an astonishing 2.5 million viewers.
That’s the most-watched WNBA postseason game ever across ESPN platforms. Per Sports Media Watch: It is the most-watched postseason game outside of the WNBA Finals since Game 2 of the Los Angeles Sparks-Houston Comets 1999 Western Conference Final (2.62M). The viewership follows Sunday’s Sun-Fever Game 1 on ABC which drew 1.84 million viewers against the NFL. That game, per Sports Media Watch, was the most-watched WNBA playoff game since 2003.
In another remarkable viewership number, the Minnesota Lynx’s series-clinching win over the Phoenix Mercury on Wednesday night drew 1.22 million viewers on ESPN.
You always want a viewership story to sell if you are a professional sports league, and the WNBA has a great metrics story to sell in 2024. ESPN announced last week that its WNBA regular season was its most-watched ever for games across ESPN Networks airwaves (including ABC).
Games averaged 1.2 million viewers, a massive jump over last year’s games (440,000 viewers). There were also seven games on ION this season that topped more than 1 million viewers this season.
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