Caitlin Clark-Less Indiana Fever Drew Its Lowest TV Viewership Of The Season
Clark’s season-ending injury leaves the WNBA bracing for a postseason ratings dip
Remember all those social media posts from the WNBA and its partner networks—like CBS and ESPN/ABC—bragging about the league's television viewership? Have you wondered why they stopped?
Probably not, since most people inherently know the answer: the WNBA doesn't draw impressive audiences without Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark.
Shortly after kickoff of the first NFL game of the 2025 season, Clark announced via social media that her groin injury would keep her out for the rest of the WNBA season. She hadn’t played since July 15 and will finish with just 15 appearances in her team’s 45-game regular season (including the Commissioner's Cup final).
(Rafael Suanes-Imagn Images)
Naturally, WNBA television viewership has taken a hit. On Sept. 2, the Fever faced the Phoenix Mercury on NBA TV. While NBA TV doesn't typically draw massive viewership, Fever games have done well on the network since Clark's arrival in the WNBA.
But the game against the Mercury saw just 314,000 viewers, the lowest number for the Fever on NBA TV since Clark debuted, according to USTVDB. It continued a season-long pattern: when Clark plays, people watch. When she doesn't, they don't.
The Fever have appeared in eight NBA TV games this season, though ratings are available for only seven of them. We don't yet have the numbers for Sunday's 29-point blowout win over the Washington Mystics, but early indications suggest those numbers won’t look promising.
Clark played in two of the games that aired on NBA TV this season and those games averaged just over 600,000 viewers. In the five games that she missed, the average plummeted to 357,000.
Last year, NBA TV saw record WNBA audiences. According to an official league press release, "NBA TV more than quadrupled its viewership from 2023 [to 2024] and had its 13 most-watched WNBA games ever, topped by the Las Vegas Aces at Indiana on Sept. 11."
That Fever/Aces match drew 678,000 viewers and Clark games on NBA TV in 2024 averaged 530,000.
What does it mean for the WNBA playoffs?
Nothing good.
Caitlin Clark isn't going to compete in the postseason, which begins on Sept. 14. She played in both of the Fever's playoff losses last season against Connecticut, and those games averaged nearly 2.2M viewers. Game 1 was the most-watched WNBA playoff game on ESPN platforms to that point, despite airing on an NFL Sunday.
Game 2 was the most-watched WNBA game on cable in history.
But without Clark, what should the league expect? They're highly unlikely to replicate last year's record-breaking viewership. How far will the numbers fall, though?
That's a question to which we don't yet have an answer. But we will soon. Stay tuned.