It has been nearly sixteen years since the WNBA last averaged a seven-figure audience. The date was May 17, 2008, and the occasion was the first professional game in the career of the freshly-retired Candace Parker. A Nielsen audience of 1.07 million tuned in to watch Parker’s Sparks face Diana Taurasi and the defending champion Phoenix Mercury on ABC.
That seven-figure drought is a virtual lock to end sometime this week as Caitlin Clark makes her WNBA debut Tuesday. Clark lifted the women’s college game to unimagined heights over the past two years, culminating in an audience of nearly 19 million for her national championship loss to South Carolina last month — not only a record for the women’s college game, but the largest basketball audience of any kind since 2019. [Related: The 10 most-watched women’s college basketball games.]
Clark is a lock to boost the WNBA to its largest audience in at least 16 years, but can she help the league to its largest audience ever? The current mark is higher than one might expect. Below are the ten most-watched WNBA games in the history of the league.
Honorable mention: 2024 WNBA Draft, April 15, 2024 (7p Mon ESPN): 2.45 million.
The first indication of Caitlin Clark’s potential impact on WNBA viewership is the fact that this year’s WNBA Draft averaged 2.45 million viewers on ESPN — not only a record for the event, but the 11th-largest WNBA audience on record.
#10: Comets at Liberty, August 8, 1999 (4p Sun NBC): 2.46 million viewers.
No rivalry in WNBA history moved the needle more than Houston vs. New York. The Comets and Liberty met in three of the first four Finals in league history, meaning that many regular season meetings were Finals rematches, previews or both. This 1999 meeting occurred about a month before the rivals’ most memorable series, but instead of Teresa Weatherspoon taking down the defending champions, it was Sophia Witherspoon who guided New York to an upset win.
#9: Sparks at Comets, August 9, 1997 (2p Sat NBC): 2.53 million.
In Sheryl Swoopes’ second career game — she began the inaugural WNBA season a few weeks late after giving birth — the late Kim Perrot led the Comets in scoring as Houston edged Los Angeles on a game-winning shot by Wanda Guyton. This was no clash of the titans as Los Angeles entered the game 10-12.
#8: Comets at Liberty, June 13, 1998 (4p Sat NBC): 2.55 million.
The second WNBA season opened with a rematch of the inaugural championship game as the Comets faced the Liberty. Sheryl Swoopes keyed Houston to a double-digit victory in the first of two WNBA games that weekend to make this list.
#7: Sparks at Comets, August 29, 1999 (4p Sun NBC): 2.62 million.
The Comets faced one of the most series threats to their dynasty in Game 2 of the 1999 Western Conference Finals. Lisa Leslie and the Sparks took Game 1, and in a best-of-three series, that meant Houston faced elimination in Game 2. Playing for Kim Perrot, who passed away at 32 just ten days earlier, the Comets routed the Sparks by 28 points to force a third and deciding game (which they won).
#6: Liberty at Comets, May 29, 2000 (3p Mon NBC): 2.74 million.
The WNBA moved up to a Memorial Day weekend start in the 2000 season, which meant that play would begin during the NBA Playoffs. That allowed NBC to carry a few WNBA-NBA doubleheaders, including on Memorial Day itself. In a rematch of the memorable 1999 WNBA Finals, Liberty-Comets delivered 2.74 million viewers on NBC leading into Game 4 of the Pacers-Knicks NBA Eastern Conference Finals later that day.
#5: Liberty at Comets, August 30, 1997 (4p Sat NBC): 2.85 million.
The first WNBA Finals was not particularly memorable, but given the novelty and the single-elimination format, it ranks among the five most-watched WNBA games ever played — and second all-time among postseason games. Houston clinched the first of its four-straight titles with a 14-point win over the Liberty.
#4: Sparks at Mercury: June 14, 1998 (4p Sun NBC): 2.89 million.
June 14, 1998, was a memorable day in pro basketball history as Michael Jordan and the Bulls clinched their sixth championship in front of the largest NBA audience on record. Earlier in the day, the WNBA scored what was — at the time — the third-largest audience in its young history as 2.89 million watched Cheryl Miller-coached Phoenix coast to a 15-point win over the Sparks, the start of a Mercury season that would finish in the WNBA Finals.
#3: Liberty at Comets, September 5, 1999 (3:30p Sun NBC): 3.25 million.
Teresa Weatherspoon shocked the WNBA with a heave from beyond half court to steal Game 2 of the WNBA Finals (one of only two Finals victories in Liberty history as of 2024). The very next day, the Liberty and Comets squared off in the winner-take-all Game 3. Houston recovered to clinch its third-straight title in front of a Nielsen-estimated audience of 3.25 million, still the most-watched postseason game in WNBA history.
#2: Sting at Mercury, June 22, 1997 (4p Sun NBC): 3.59 million;
#1: Liberty at Sparks, June 21, 1997 (4p Sat NBC): 5.04 million.
The two largest audiences in WNBA history took place in a 48-hour span on the inaugural weekend of play back in 1997, as NBC averaged 5.04 million for the league’s debut game — Liberty-Sparks on June 21 — and 3.59 million for Sting-Mercury the following day. Indeed, the WNBA has yet to recapture the audience that sampled its opening games nearly 27 years ago. Given the high level of interest in the Clark-led rookie class, the league over the coming years has a golden opportunity to ensure that is no longer the case.
