The WNBA continues to prove its growth is real, even outside of superstar guard Caitlin Clark.
Ion’s Friday night doubleheader, which featured a Clark-less Indiana Fever taking on the Dallas Wings, averaged 1.14 million viewers. That figure also includes a Minnesota Lynx-Atlanta Dream game that aired simultaneously in those two local markets. The window was Ion’s most-watched WNBA telecast this season and seventh-most ever on the network. It was also Ion’s most-watched game on-record that Clark did not play in.
Through seven weeks of the regular season, the WNBA on Ion is even from a viewership perspective versus the same point last season. However, Ion had already aired three games featuring Caitlin Clark at this point last season whereas this year the network has yet to air a game in which the Fever star has played. Excluding Fever games from this year and last, Ion’s WNBA viewership is up 16%.
While Friday’s Fever-Wings game did not feature Clark, it did feature one of the WNBA’s other young stars, Paige Bueckers. The game, which peaked at 1.5 million viewers in the 9:30 p.m. ET quarter-hour, was the most-watched Dallas Wings game on any network this season.
Game 2 of Friday’s doubleheader between the New York Liberty and Phoenix Mercury averaged 610,000 viewers.
Friday’s numbers say a lot about the WNBA’s viewership situation as a whole. The Fever, with or without Clark, remain the league’s top draw. But players like Bueckers are proving they can maintain a sizeable television audience as well.
Just over one year ago, a seven-figure audience for a WNBA game on Ion would’ve been inconceivable. Now, it’s simply expected.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.