In her final act of her rookie season on the court, Caitlin Clark made more history as the final game the Indiana Fever will play this season is now the most-viewed WNBA ever on cable television. The Fever fell 87-81 to the Connecticut Sun Wednesday night and lost the series two games to none. The game averaged 2.5 million viewers on ESPN and peaked at 3.4 million viewers.
The audience makes the game the most-viewed regular season or playoff WNBA game ever on cable. According to ESPN, the game was up 507% versus last year’s first round average. They also said it was the most-viewed cable telecast of the day among persons and males under the age of 50.
ESPN also carried what turned out to be the final game of the series between the Phoenix Mercury and the Minnesota Lynx. Minnesota took the game 101-88 and swept the three-game series. That game brought in an average of 1.2 million viewers and peaked at 2.1 million. The audience makes it the third most-viewed playoff game ever on ESPN. ESPN says it was an increase of 192% from the average first round game last year.
Additionally, the first round in full averaged 1.1 million viewers, making it the most-viewed opening round ever across all networks. WNBA Countdown was up 144% versus last season’s full playoff average on ESPN.
The semi-final round will begin on Sept. 29 with Connecticut taking on Minnesota and Las Vegas matching up with New York.
