Millions of viewers were locked in for one Saturday basketball game during this past opening weekend. By the final horn, the massive audience size behind it shocked the entire sports world.<\/p>\n
The Indiana Fever faced the Dallas Wings on May 9 on ABC. An average of 2.49 million viewers<\/a> watched the game, according to the league.<\/p>\n That made it the second most-watched<\/a> WNBA regular season game ever across ESPN networks. The Wings won 107-104 in a close, high-scoring finish on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n Caitlin Clark returned to the court<\/a> after playing just 13 games last season due to injury. Her comeback alone generated massive buzz across social media and sports talk shows.<\/p>\n The game featured four of the most recent number 1 overall draft picks. Paige Bueckers and 2026 top pick Azzi Fudd debuted as professional teammates on the Wings roster.<\/p>\n Young stars like Clark continue to attract a newer and younger audience to the WNBA. Rivalry attention and viral social media moments push even casual fans to watch live.<\/p>\n Only one regular season game on ESPN networks ever drew more viewers than this one. The Fever-Sky matchup in May 2025 averaged<\/a> 2.7 million viewers on ABC.\u00a0That historic rookie showdown between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.<\/p>\n That 2025 game between the Fever and Sky peaked<\/a> at 3.1 million viewers. It was the most-watched WNBA regular season game in 25 years, a mark that still stands.<\/p>\n The WNBA is tipping off its milestone 30th season in 2026. More games and more broadcast platforms mean more chances for record ratings throughout the year.<\/p>\n The league signed an 11-year media deal valued<\/a> at $2,200M two years ago. That deal has since grown to over<\/a> $3,100M, with additional broadcast partners joining.<\/p>\n As Clark and Bueckers keep drawing more eyes, the Fever are becoming must-watch TV. This may not be the last time they rewrite WNBA viewing history.<\/p>\n More WNBA news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Millions of viewers were locked in for one Saturday basketball game during this past opening weekend. By the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-667476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}