Caitlin Clark’s return to the playoffs helped the WNBA extend its momentum from a milestone regular season.
Sunday’s Fever-Aces first round WNBA playoff Game 1 averaged a 1.2 rating and 2.11 million viewers on ABC, marking the largest WNBA playoff audience on the broadcast network, and the third-largest across all networks since 2000.
The Aces’ blowout win trailed a pair of 2024 playoff games, the deciding Game 5 of the WNBA Finals (Lynx-Liberty: 2.15M) and the clinching Fever-Sun Game 2 in the first round (2.54M).
Game 1 marked Caitlin Clark’s first playoff game since that 2024 matchup against the Sun. Compared to Game 1 of that series, which also aired on ABC on an NFL Sunday, viewership increased 15% from 1.84 million. (Note that between then and now, Nielsen expanded its out-of-home viewing sample and shifted to a new methodology integrating “Big Data” from smart TVs and set-top boxes with its traditional panel.)
Earlier in the day, ABC averaged a 0.7 and 1.20 million for Liberty-Lynx Game 1. Both games increased from the lone Game 1 on ABC last year, the Clark-less Fever against the Dream (951K).
Figures for the two other series openers, which aired on Prime Video and USA Network, were not immediately available.
As for the regular season, WNBA games averaged 731,000 viewers across all networks, up 11% from last year (660K) and the highest average for the league since 2000. That figure apparently includes Peacock-exclusive games, as without those factored in, the average was 771,000 (+17%). Both averages outpace the most recent NHL regular season (545K), with the caveat that the NHL has considerably fewer games on broadcast television (16 for the NHL versus 73 for the WNBA, including 39 on the major networks of ABC, CBS and NBC).
The regular season included 51 telecasts with more than one million viewers — an increase of 32 over last season — including one on the last night of the season, Fever-Lynx on USA Network last Thursday night. That game had a 0.6 and 1.05 million.
USA Network finished the season averaging 525,000 viewers. With more game windows — 48 — than any other network, USA accounted for a full fifth of WNBA viewing during the regular season.
As previously noted, NBC was the most-watched of the WNBA broadcasters during the season with an average of 1.75 million for its seven-game schedule. ESPN/ABC averaged 1.37 million, including 1.56 million on ABC and 1.24 million on ESPN. The ESPN-only average exceeds its regular season men’s college basketball (1.15M) and Major League Baseball (1.1M) averages, though it should be noted that the network sustained that average over fewer game windows (17 total) — of which more than a third (six) featured Clark and the Fever.
CBS averaged 1.275 million for its games, Scripps-owned ION averaged 617,000, and Prime Video averaged 437,000.
