When we say Caitlin Clark had a record-setting rookie season in the WNBA, we don’t just mean what she did on the court.
Sure, it is undeniably impressive that Clark set the WNBA single-season assist record and the single-game assist record for all players, not just rookies. She also has the rookie records for points and 3-pointers, in addition to ending the WNBA’s longest playoff drought.
Clark’s biggest impact, however, might be her ability to make numbers measured in the millions go up, be they viewers or dollars. It’s not just that the WNBA has never seen a player so transformative to its bottom line. It’s simply hard to think of a rookie in any sport that has had such an immediate impact upon his or her league.
With Clark and the Indiana Fever finishing the regular season Thursday, let’s go through each of the ways she altered the WNBA’s bottom line.
Six WNBA networks set ratings records this season, all via Caitlin Clark
When the WNBA’s broadcast schedule was announced, the two-time defending champion and title favorite Las Vegas Aces had the second-most national television games in the league with 35. Right behind them were the New York Liberty, currently tops in the standings, with 31. The team with the most: the Fever, with 36.
The Fever might have been the worst team in the East last year, but they had Clark. And if you need an explanation of why that was more important than what the Aces and Liberty had, let’s take a look at the WNBA’s TV partners and what their viewership records for a WNBA game is now:
-
ESPN: Indiana Fever-Chicago Sky, 2.3 million
-
CBS: Chicago Sky-Indiana Fever, 2.25 million
-
ABC: Seattle Storm-Indiana Fever, 2.2 million
-
ESPN2: Indiana Fever-Connecticut Sun, 2.1 million
-
Ion: Indiana Fever-Chicago Sky, 1.6 million
-
NBA TV: Las Vegas Aces-Indiana Fever, 678K
The Fever also played games on Prime Video and CBS Sports Network, but ratings numbers are not available for those games.
It’s not a coincidence that half of the above games involve the Sky, including the ESPN and CBS games, which are now the two most-watched games for the WNBA since 2001. The Sky’s Angel Reese has been positioned as Clark’s rival since their college careers and the forward had a spectacular year in her own right, until recently owning the WNBA single-season rebounding record.
Another fun fact: NBA TV set a record for WNBA single-game viewership eight different times this year. Clark played in all eight of those games. That Aces-Fever game also outdrew every NBA game on the network last season.
The Fever had 90% of their games aired nationally this season. It wouldn’t be surprising if that number is 100% next year.
23 WNBA games drew more than 1 million viewers. Clark played in 20 of them
According to Sports Media Watch, before this season, no WNBA game had averaged more than 1 million viewers since 2008. Let’s just say that changed when Clark entered the league.
In 2024, the WNBA saw not one, not two, but 23 games hit seven figures in viewership. Clark was involved in all but three of those games.
On the list of most-watched WNBA games this season, you have to go down to No. 15 to find the first game without the Fever. That would be a May 18 game between the Los Angeles Sparks and Las Vegas Aces (read: No. 2 pick Cameron Brink’s WNBA debut against the defending champs).
Clark’s shadow is clear even in the WNBA’s bump for non-Fever games. While existing fans of a league typically love parity and having a constellation of stars, the history of sports has shown the easiest way for a league to grow interest among a general audience is through singular superstars. Baseball exploded in popularity with Babe Ruth, hockey with Wayne Gretzky, golf with Tiger Woods.
The NBA was in dire straits financially before Magic Johnson and Larry Bird arrived (a comparison many like to throw out with Clark and Reese), and it became a global power with the rise of Michael Jordan. That doesn’t mean other NBA players should have been giving those stars special treatment or publicly thanking them, it’s just hard to deny those other players saw larger audiences by being on the same court as the person most casual fans wanted to see.
There are other good WNBA players. For whatever reason — and those reasons have been and will continue to be unpacked — Clark is unique in her impact.
Caitlin Clark’s Iowa career ended with the three most-watched women’s college basketball games
Clark’s Iowa career already had enough records, most notably the NCAA career scoring record, but her last few games in the NCAA tournament were landmark moments for women’s college basketball on the ratings side.
In the Elite Eight, Iowa’s rematch against Reese and LSU shattered the viewership record — set by last year’s meeting in the NCAA championship game — with 12.3 million viewers, making it the most watched women’s college basketball game ever.
In the Final Four, Iowa beat UConn while drawing 14.2 million viewers, making it ESPN’s most-watched basketball game. That’s not ESPN’s most watched women’s game or most-watched college game, either. ESPN, which holds NBA rights and previously aired men’s March Madness games, never had a basketball game draw more viewers. The game also outdrew every NBA Finals and MLB World Series game over the past year, and all but five college football games.
And then the championship game against South Carolina drew 18.7 million viewers, aided by a move from ESPN to ABC. You can only wonder if the WNBA would see similar numbers if the Fever make a playoff run.
The WNBA Draft and All-Star Game demolished their viewership records with Caitlin Clark
Before 2024, the most-watched WNBA Draft was in 2004, when Diana Taurasi entered the league. That draft drew 600,000 viewers.
Clark’s official entry to the league drew 2.45 million, a 374% increase over the previous year.
It’s definitely worth noting the 2024 draft was pretty hyped behind Clark as well, with well-known players such as Brink, Reese and Kamilla Cardoso.
The WNBA All-Star Game — in which Clark’s appearance after being excluded from Team USA was a significant storyline — did similarly well, drawing 3.44 million viewers. The previous record was the 2003 game with 1.44 million viewers.
So Clark’s presence helped the WNBA quadruple its draft ratings and double its All-Star Game ratings.
Fever quadrupled ticket sales after drafting Caitlin Clark
When it came to actually putting butts in seats, Clark was on another level.
Last season, when the Fever were struggling to a 13-27 record, the team ranked second to last in the WNBA with an average attendance of 4,067 per game. This season, per the Indianapolis Star, they led the league with over 17,000 per game, becoming the first team in WNBA history to draw more than 300,000 fans in a season.
That is more than a 300% increase in attendance year over year, with Clark being pretty much the only thing that changed. What’s more, when you compare it to the Fever’s 5-31 horror show in 2022, when they averaged 1,776 per game, it’s an 857% increase.
Clark was a force on the road as well, with the Liberty setting a WNBA record with more than $2 million in ticket revenue from their May 18 game against the Fever. In their regular season finale, the Fever’s road game against the Washington Mystics broke the WNBA attendance record with 20,711 fans.
Caitlin Clark has the top selling jersey in the WNBA
Does a 1,193% increase sound high?
That was the year-over-year increase in jersey sales the Fever reported last month. You can probably guess which player’s jersey fans were buying.
Sports Business Journal also reported in July that Clark’s jersey was unsurprisingly the top seller in the league. Second was Reese. Fourth was Kate Martin, Clark’s Iowa teammate and current Aces reserve.
The WNBA has teams in some of the biggest media markets in the United States. The one with the largest following on X is the Fever, with more than 196,000 followers. They are also the top team on Instagram, with 628,000 followers.
They did not rank that high last year. In the week after drafting Clark, the team also added more IG followers than they had in the previous three years combined.
