Caitlin Clark Breaks WNBA Viewership, Attendance, Rookie Records

14 of the 16 most-watched WNBA games this season featured the Indiana Fever.
The WNBA has signed a new $2.2 billion media rights deal that will earn the league $200 million annually.

INDIANAPOLIS — The numbers prove it: Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark is a crowd pleaser.

She’s a draw like no other player has ever been in the WNBA’s 27-year history, and she and the Fever have drawn staggering viewership and attendance figures.

“I’m not going to deny the Caitlin Clark effect,” WNBA Chief Growth Officer Colie Edison told IndyStar during All-Star weekend. “And we’ve seen it primarily in viewership, you know, we’re averaging over 1.2 million. And that kind of growth is important because we’re opening the gate and bringing in new fans. So Caitlin was really a catalyst to bringing in a lot of new fans, as well as our other rookies, who came through the NCAA in this draft. It was a great draft class to watch.”

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Trying to get ahead of what have become unprecedented television ratings for the league, the WNBA first began its marketing campaign during the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, televising 36 of the Fever’s 40 games nationally, even before Indiana officially drafted Clark with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 draft.

WNBA Chief Marketing Officer Phil Cook said the league is trying to appeal to different groups of fans. That includes general basketball fans, who regularly watch NBA or college basketball, fans who pay attention to the big moments, like the NBA Finals or the Super Bowl, and casual fans who want to be part of the conversation.

And those kinds of new fans are eager to see Clark record a rookie’s first triple-double or dish out a WNBA record 19 assists in a single game.

“The audience we really wanted to connect with this year was the audience that loves basketball, or the big sports moments, or is just a casual sports fan,” Cook told IndyStar. “And when you put those kinds of performances on the board, they get interested. They turn their heads and say, ’19 assists in a 40-minute game at the W? That’s incredible.’ Those numbers are unprecedented, and I think the loyalist has said, ‘Oh yeah, our game has been this good for 20 years, you just haven’t been watching.'”

The ratings began before Clark played her first professional minute. The WNBA draft drew a record 2.4 million viewers in April, breaking the previous record of 601,000 set in 2004 — when UConn’s Diana Taurasi was drafted to the Phoenix Mercury.

Those records haven’t stopped as the competition heads into the Olympic break ahead of the 2024 Paris Games. The Fever’s season opener against Connecticut, Clark’s first game as a professional, set an ESPN2 viewership record with 2.12 million viewers.

Indiana’s final game before the Olympic break against the Dallas Wings drew 1.7 million viewers, making it the 16th WNBA game this season with more than 1 million people tuning in — already a new league record. Fourteen of those 16 games featured Clark and the Fever, according to Sports Media Watch.

The Fever’s two most-watched games also came about with the help of another rookie: Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese. Clark and Reese have been rivals since their college days, when Reese’s LSU defeated Clark’s Iowa in the 2023 national championship game. The rivalry only intensified when they were drafted to teams just three hours apart, and the two Rookie of the Year front-runners now play four times a season as Eastern Conference opponents.

The second game between the Fever and Sky on June 16 drew a record for a WNBA game on CBS with 2.25 million viewers. The rematch just a week later set another ratings record on ESPN with 2.3 million viewers.

“The quality of play that comes into our league, led by Caitlin, led by an Angel, it’s on display in all of those athletes and I’m impressed with how seamlessly they’ve fit into what I thought was going to be a more difficult transition,” Cook said. “But it hasn’t, and I think every fan is very impressed, and the media is very impressed.”

The Fever has also sold out nearly every away game. Indiana leads the league in overall attendance with an average of 16,698 fans at Gainbridge Fieldhouse — just 1,000 shy of a sellout crowd. It’s a significant jump from the Fever’s average of about 4,000 fans just a year ago.

“We’re starting to realize how talented these athletes are, and they’re coming to our games live because the attendance — you know, you’re from Indianapolis — those games are an insanely tough ticket,” Cook said. “… the work that these athletes do on the court translates to an audience that appreciates great sports, great basketball and even the casual fan.”

Clark and Reese’s fan base has elevated the WNBA as a whole. The two rookies were part of the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game, which set a ratings record with 3.4 million viewers — up 305% from 2023.

And the league’s broadcast partners have taken notice.

The WNBA this week officially announced an 11-year deal with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon that will begin with the 2026 season. The games will be broadcast on networks including ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and NBC, as well as streaming platforms like Peacock and Amazon Prime. That portion of the deal, which was negotiated in conjunction with the NBA, will pay the WNBA $2.2 billion over the 11-year period, which works out to $200 million per year. The league also has the option to add CBS, ION or other networks in a separate deal, which would generate up to an additional $60 million per year. The WNBA also has the right to renegotiate after three years after evaluating the league’s growth.

“I think the partners recognize the value of what this audience brings to their platforms,” Cook said. “We’re a distinctive audience. These aren’t just the same fans that watch all sports. We have this distinctive audience, our athletes are delivering distinctive products. They have this great intersection of, you know, being the best athletes in the world, and also the most culturally influential individual points of view in the world. And that combination makes it very attractive to the broadcast partners.”

Follow IndyStar Fever Insider Chloe Peterson on X at @chloepeterson67.