WNBA TV Ratings Down Since Caitlin Clark Injury
Caitlin Clark's return to the court can't come soon enough!
Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark has missed her team's last five games due to a quad injury suffered in a loss to the New York Liberty on May 24.
The WNBA desperately needs Caitlin Clark to return from injury, and new ratings unveiled since Clark started sitting out games have reinforced what most of us thought: the league counts on Clark to deliver massive viewership numbers.
UNCASVILLE, Conn. - Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) warms up before game one of the first round of the 2024 WNBA Playoffs at Mohegan Sun Arena on Sept. 22, 2024. Photo: Mark Smith-Imagn Images
According to USA Today, Nielsen ratings showed that "Nationally televised WNBA viewership is down 55 percent since her injury. Fever national TV games are down 53 percent since Clark's injury – 1,810,000 average viewers before her injury and 847,000 viewers since her injury for Fever national TV games."
READ: Caitlin Clark Delivered Massive Ratings Again For WNBA Prior To Injury
Now, there is an important caveat here. Clark participated in four games prior to her injury. Two of those games aired on network television – one on CBS and one on ABC. The other on NBA TV. The other was not rated by Nielsen because it aired on Amazon Prime exclusively.
Since her injury, three of the four Fever games (that have ratings available) have aired on either NBA TV or ION. While the league saw a big decrease on NBA TV – the two games without Clark averaged 344K viewers compared to 581K for the NBA TV game in which she participated – the game on ION did quite well without her.
Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever. Photo: Grace Smith/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
According to Sports Media Watch, that game against the Connecticut Sun averaged 851K viewers and "delivered the largest audience ever on ION for a game that did not involve Caitlin Clark." It more than doubled the audience of a similar ION broadcast last season.
Also, the Fever-Sky game that aired on CBS did well, even without Clark, drawing nearly 2 million viewers. That was down from the season-opener between the two teams – a game that also aired on CBS and featured Clark – but still drew a big number for the WNBA.
In addition to TV ratings, data shows that sports betting on Indiana Fever games suffered a near 50 percent drop, coming less than a week after she was injured.
READ: No Caitlin Clark Means Much Less Sports Betting Interest For WNBA
As previously reported on OutKick, "roughly 50 percent of betting activity for the Fever dropped off compared to the first four games Clark played this season."
BetMGM noted a 37 percent drop in betting activity for Indiana’s two games without Clark against the Washington Mystics and Connecticut Sun.
Simply put, people aren’t as interested without Clark.
The WNBA has faced an identity crisis since Clark joined the league in 2024.
While experiencing these massive spikes in interest, the WNBA has mishandled the messaging surrounding Clark.
When critics arose about Caitlin Clark's "privilege" as a white basketball player, rather than fixating on her skill, the WNBA began chipping away at its own star's appeal by siding with the women jealous of Clark's success. In four games this season, Clark averaged 19.0 points, 9.3 assists and 6.0 rebounds for the Indiana Fever.
Many of those critics have proclaimed that Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese could be a viable face of the league alongside Clark, but so far, nothing has compared to Clark's superstardom.
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