The WNBA returned after a break for the 2024 Paris Olympics last week, and the league continued its incredible wave of strong viewership.
Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever’s win over the Seattle Storm on ABC Sunday averaged 2.23 million viewers, the fifth-largest audience for the league over the past two-plus decades. All four events ahead of it have taken place this season.
Incredibly, this was also the most-watched game featuring the Storm, eclipsing their previous high by nearly a million viewers.
Compared to all other sports events over the weekend, the only one to draw a larger audience was Fox’s Saints-49ers NFL preseason broadcast.
Ion also drew another strong audience on Friday night for the Fever’s win over the Phoenix Mercury. 1.22 million viewers watched the game, Ion’s second-most watched game ever behind the same matchup in July. Also on Friday, Ion averaged 485,000 viewers for Sun-Wings.
Saturday on CBS, the network averaged 874,000 viewers for Liberty-Aces and 577,000 for Lynx-Mystics. The early game was the network’s most-watched WNBA game that didn’t feature Cleark and the Fever.
Far from stopping the league’s momentum, the break for the Olympics has only seemed to energize WNBA fans even further and supercharged the league’s viewership.
This week, the WNBA’s national television schedule is Fever-light. Wings-Liberty airs Tuesday on NBA TV, with Lynx-Aces on ESPN Wednesday. Ion’s Friday night doubleheader features four games (including three in the early regional window), which don’t include the Fever. Fever-Lynx airs in primetime on NBA TV Saturday, while Aces-Sky airs on CBS at noon ET Sunday.
[Data via Sports Media Watch]
