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.