After missing five games with a left quad injury, Indiana Fever superstar guard Caitlin Clark made her return to the court this past Saturday and scored a career high seven three-point baskets. With a season-high 32-point performance, Clark led the Fever to a 14-point victory over the defending NBA champion New York Liberty, granting the team its first loss of the regular season.
The game averaged 2.2 million viewers on ABC, which is up 76% from the WNBA on ABC regular-season average from last season. On top of that, it finished as the third most-watched ESPN WNBA game to ever air on ABC and peaked with a total of 2.8 million viewers, according to data from Nielsen Media Research.
In a recent article by Jeff Zillgitt of USA TODAY, Nielsen Media Research divulged that WNBA national television ratings were down 55% since Clark had been injured. On top of that, national television games for the Fever were down by 53% from the time she was injured, averaging 847,000 viewers after eclipsing 1.8 million viewers on average before that.
Entering the new season, the WNBA was coming off record performances during the 2024 regular-season slate with 22 games on the schedule averaging at least 1 million viewers.
Earlier in the season, ESPN platforms garnered its most-watched WNBA game in history, averaging 2.7 million viewers in a matchup featuring the Indiana Fever facing off against the Chicago Sky. The matchup between Clark and Angel Reese rekindled a rivalry first established at the college level in the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament. Reese, an alumna of Louisiana State University, defeated Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes for the National Championship in 2023 that averaged 9.9 million viewers. The rematch in the next season averaged 12.3 million viewers, which was the most-watched women’s college basketball game on record at the time.
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