The ratings may not be as high as on other networks, but the Caitlin Clark effect has been especially pronounced on NBA TV.
Monday’s Fever-Dream WNBA regular season game averaged a 0.33 rating and 617,000 viewers on NBA TV, making it the most-watched WNBA game ever on the network — surpassing a record that was set just two nights earlier by Fever-Lynx (569K).
Indiana’s win, which peaked with 847,000 viewers from 9:30 PM ET to the conclusion, outdrew all-but-one NBA game on NBA TV this past season (regular season and playoffs). A Cavaliers-Warriors game last November drew 645,000.
Notably, Fever-Dream on NBA TV — a network in fewer than 40 million homes — averaged more viewers than the concurrent Astros-Phillies Major League Baseball game on FS1 (0.27, 458K).
The good times continued on Wednesday night, as Sun-Fever averaged a 0.33 and 580,000 — marking the second-largest WNBA audience ever on the network. Overall, the three-largest WNBA audiences ever on NBA TV have all come in the past week for games involving Clark and the Fever.
In total, NBA TV has set new viewership records on six different occasions this season, again all involving Clark and the Fever.
WNBA viewership records by network this season
Prior to this season, the record for a WNBA game on NBA TV was 210,000 for a 2014 Lynx-Mercury winner-take-all playoff game to determine who would advance to the WNBA Finals.
Other WNBA games on NBA TV this week did not fare nearly as well. Despite the record lead-in from Fever-Dream, Monday’s Liberty-Mercury nightcap averaged 166,000. A battle of bottom-dwellers between the Sparks and Wings drew 64,000 on Sunday.
