Mounting an unexpected playoff run without Caitlin Clark, the Fever are still setting new viewership marks.
Tuesday’s Fever-Aces WNBA semifinal Game 2 averaged 1.7 million viewers on ESPN, marking the largest second round playoff audience since Comets-Sparks Game 2 on NBC in the 2000 Western Conference Finals, and the third-largest overall. The WNBA has had at least two rounds of playoffs prior to the Finals dating back to 1999.
The Aces’ series-tying win was also the most-watched second round game ever on the ESPN family of networks, surpassing the previous high set by Game 1 of the series on ABC Sunday — which drew 1.4 million.
Games 1 and 2 increased 51 and 157 percent respectively over last year’s comparable windows, Aces-Liberty Game 1 on ABC (929K) and Sun-Lynx Game 2 on ESPN2 (668K). Keep in mind that this year’s numbers have a built-in advantage over prior years due to Nielsen’s new “Big Data + Panel” methodology and February expansion of out-of-home viewing — though that is unlikely to fully account for gains of such size.
The Fever routinely set viewership records throughout Clark’s rookie season last year, but that did not extend into the second round of the playoffs thanks to an opening round sweep at the hands of the Sun. It should be noted that this year’s second round viewership still trails last year’s opening round Fever games, which featured a healthy Clark and averaged panel-only audiences of 1.8 and 2.5 million.
The Clark-less Fever account for the three-largest audiences of this year’s playoffs, with their opening round Game 2 win over the Dream ranking third at more than 1.5 million.
Placing fourth, Tuesday’s Mercury-Lynx Game 2 averaged just shy of 1.5 million — up 51% from Aces-Liberty Game 2 on ESPN2 last year. Game 1 of the series drew 716,000 on ESPN Sunday.
The full WNBA postseason is averaging one million viewers, up two percent from last year and up 164% from 2023. Viewership had been down 15% through the first round, which at 943,000 was still the second-most watched ever on the ESPN networks.
