As many media outlets have noted — often including this one — Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark has had a Tiger Woods-like impact on viewership for her sport. This is not for debate. The numbers show it.

However, ESPN offered an interesting note on Friday morning that highlighted increased interest in the WNBA during a season when the Fever star played in just 13 games and last took the court for Indiana on July 15. Clark announced on Sept. 4 that she will be out for the rest of the season because of a groin injury she suffered at the end of a win over the Connecticut Sun.

ESPN said that its networks delivered their most-watched WNBA regular season in history. Over 25 regular-season games, WNBA games on ESPN networks (which includes ABC) averaged 1.3 million viewers. That was up 6 percent from last season’s record year, which saw an average of 1.2 million viewers across 24 games,

A spokesperson told The Athletic that it was the most-watched WNBA regular season across ESPN networks among males and females in the ages 2-and-up sample (which means anyone watching). WNBA games on ESPN averaged 721,000 viewers among all males, a 2 percent increase over 2024 (710,147 viewers). Female viewership averaged 543,065 viewers, representing a 13 percent increase over 2024 (478,705 viewers).

Eight of the 10 most-watched WNBA games during the season aired on ESPN networks, including the most-watched WNBA regular season game ever — 2.7 million viewers for the Chicago Sky versus the Fever on May 17 (ABC), which also featured Angel Reese. For just the ESPN Networks, nine of the top 10 games were Fever games. The other game was the Las Vegas Aces versus the New York Liberty on May 17.

The company’s studio show, “WNBA Countdown,” averaged 549,000 viewers, a 7 percent increase year-over-year across 17 episodes, including All-Star Weekend. That’s in part due to better placement and more marketing for the show.

Some additional fun data: The top five WNBA media markets for ESPN games, based on ratings, were Indianapolis, Louisville, Ky., Richmond-Petersburg, Va., Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville-Anderson, S.C. (this is how the market is measured) and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

As The Athletic has noted repeatedly, Nielsen’s viewership data for sports is now based on Big Data + Panel. That offers better first-party data to give a more accurate measurement of audiences, and the result will be sports viewership numbers being reported higher than before. The major sports broadcasters are all on board with the shift, and we’ve already seen significant increases in college football numbers and NFL viewership.

ESPN will air the entire WNBA postseason, and NBC Sports and Prime Video will also share coverage when the new media rights deal takes effect.

In what will be very tough competition against the NFL, ESPN’s networks have four opening round playoff games scheduled for Sunday, including the Golden State Valkyries versus the Minnesota Lynx (1 p.m. ET, ESPN), the Fever versus the Atlanta Dream (3 p.m. ET, ABC); the Liberty versus the Phoenix Mercury (5 p.m. ET, ESPN) and the Seattle Storm versus the Aces (10 p.m. ET, ESPN).

(Photo: Grace Smith / Imagn Images)