For all the controversy, narratives, and right-wing meddling happening off the court, the WNBA had another stellar season of fans tuning in to watch the action on it.<\/p>\n
ESPN announced<\/a> Friday that for the third straight year, the stretch of WNBA games broadcast across ESPN and ABC this season was the most-watched in its history.<\/p>\n Across 29 total games, the WNBA on ESPN networks averaged 1.37 million viewers, up 17% year over year. ESPN aired 17 games this season, averaging 1.24 million viewers, up 32% year over year, while 12 ABC games averaged 1.56 million viewers, up 9% year over year.<\/p>\n Naturally, Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever drove much of the interest<\/a>. ESPN had five games average over 2 million viewers, all of them including the Fever. The August 16 game between the Fever and Angel Reese\u2019s Atlanta Dream garnered a season-high 2.58 million viewers. That was also the most-watched WNBA regular-season or postseason game ever on cable<\/a>.<\/p>\n No Clark? No problem.\u00a0Non-Fever games on ESPN\/ABC averaged 984,000 viewers, up 24% year over year.<\/p>\n WNBA Countdown averaged 595,000 viewers, up 27% from the previous season.<\/p>\n As Jon Lewis at Sports Media Watch noted<\/a>, ESPN\/ABC finished second (and third) among WNBA broadcasters this season. NBC averaged 1.75 million across its seven-game schedule, with Nielsen-measured linear ratings and Adobe Analytics tracking streaming viewership. Their August 23 game between the Fever and Chicago Sky averaged 3.3 million<\/a>, via\u00a0Nielsen and Adobe.<\/p>\n CBS\u00a0averaged 1.275 million for its 20-game WNBA schedule, up 9% from last year\u2019s nine-game package (1.17 million). Their most-watched game of the season was July\u2019s Fever-New York Liberty contest, which drew 2.58 million.<\/p>\n