The season’s final matchup of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese delivered yet another network record.
Friday’s matchup of the Clark-led Fever against Reese and the Chicago Sky averaged 1.60 million viewers on ION, marking the largest WNBA audience on the Scripps-owned “netlet,” which began airing games last season. The previous high was 1.34 million for Mercury-Fever in July. (Figures include the audience in Minneapolis and Dallas-Ft. Worth that received Lynx-Wings instead.)
Indiana’s blowout win, which peaked with 1.92 million viewers, delivered the tenth-largest WNBA audience this season (11th including the WNBA Draft). It was the 21st game to average at least one million viewers (22nd including the Draft), further extending an all-time record for a single WNBA season.
Prior to this season, the most seven-figure audiences in a single season was 15, and not a single game had crossed that mark since 2008.
Clark has been the driving force behind the viewership success this season, as her Fever squad has played in 18 of the 21 games to cross the million viewer threshold. Among the three exceptions, one had a direct lead-in from Clark-led Indiana.
WNBA games on ION are now averaging 639,000 viewers so far this season, up 123% from last year’s full-season average of 287,000. The network has two more Clark games, a potential playoff preview against Minnesota this Friday and a matchup against defending champion Las Vegas the following week.
Friday’s game was the 18th WNBA telecast this season to set a new viewership record for the network on which it aired. All-but-one of those network records has been for a game involving Clark.
